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Right Rev. E. P. Wadhams, D.D. 
First Bishop of Ogdensburg, N. Y. 



REMINISCENCES 



OF 



EDGAR P. WADHAMS, 

fffrst 3Bf6bop of ©a&ensburg* 



BY 

Rev. C. A. WALWORTH, 

Author of "The Gentle Skeptic" "Andiatorocte, and Other Poems" etc. 



WITH A PREFACE 

By Right Rev. H. GABRIELS, D.D., 

Bishop of Ogdensburg. 



Sfa 3.3 1893 ) 



SECOND EDITION, 

%w< 1 v 1 ) 

New York, Cincinnati, Chicago : 
BENZIGER BROTHERS, 

Printers to the Holy Apostolic See. 



\ 



3X4705" 
.\A/a5V\/3 



Copyright, i8 93 , by Right Rev. H. Gabriels, D.D. 



a! 



PREFACE. 

The following pages have already been ap- 
preciated by the readers of the Catholic World as 
a tribute of faith and of friendship. 

A tribute of faith. Both the subject and the 
author of the Reminiscences were actors in that 
great tractarian movement which brought thou- 
sands out of the labyrinth of Protestantism into 
the one Christian fold, and which, moreover, in- 
fused into non-Catholic denominations that new 
religious leaven by which they are lifted up every 
day nearer and nearer to the truth. To few was 
it known how lively this movement had been 
on this side of the ocean, and how many Amer- 
icans, Episcopalians principally, had been either 
led by it into the Catholic Church, or stimulated 
to adopt many of her doctrines and rites. Father 
Walworth gives us a vivid description of those 
memorable years, and it is not without a desire 
for more that we peruse the documents which it 
was his good luck to discover among the papers 
of the first bishop of Ogdensburg. No Catholic 
will read his reminiscences without feeling hap- 
pier with him and his illustrious brother-convert 
for the possession of the one true religion and 

3 



4 Preface, 

without praying that those friends of theirs, who 
are still wavering at the entrance, may like them 
receive the kiss of welcome from the Master of 
the fold. 

The book is a tribute of friendship. United 
less by the tie of kindred than by that of affec- 
tion and of common aspirations, Bishop Wadhams 
and Father Walworth, like Basil and Gregory, 
attended the same schools; like Newman and 
Froude, they communed together on the light 
that was leading them on, until finally the one 
helped the other to take the decisive step that 
made them denizens of the City of God. No 
wonder that their souls remained knit and that 
Virgil was half of the soul of his Horace. It 
was fitting that when one was called to his re- 
ward, the other should put in writing some of 
the words and deeds by which the departed had 
deserved remembrance, either as the neophyte 
who had with him piously accepted the Divine 
message, or as the priest and prelate who had 
taught and ruled for the salvation of many, or as 
a partisan of sacred truth who knew how to min- 
gle the largest kindness with controversy, or in 
fine as the citizen and friend who, by his patri- 
otism and his genial disposition, had endeared 
himself to all : 

'* Qui didicit patriae quid debeat, et quid amicis, 
Quo sit amore parens, quo frater amandus, et hospes ; 
Quod sit conscripti, quod judicis officium ; quae 
Partes in bellum missi ducis. " 



Preface. 5 

The proceeds of the sale of this book will be 
applied to missionary labor in behalf of the Cath- 
olic Iroquois of this diocese. 

* H. Gabriels. 
Ogdensburg, Feast of St. Pius V., 1893. 



Contents* 



PAGE 

Preface, 3 

Introductory, 9 

CHAPTER I. 

Wadb ims at the Episcopalian Seminary. — His Associates 
There. — Some Off-hand Recollections, . . .15 

CHAPTER II. 

Correspondence between Wadhams and Old Associates 
at the Seminary. — Efforts to Establish Monastic Life. 
1841-1844, . .35 

CHAPTER III. 

A Storm at Oxford Echoed at the Chelsea Seminary. — 
Sindbad's Whale Flops. — The Cloister Goes Under. — 
Friends Cross Over to Rome. 1845, . . . .62 

CHAPTER IV. 
Wadhams and the Encircling Gloom. — "Lead Thou Me 
On." — Nostrums Against Romanism. — He Enters the 
Fold. 1 845-1 846, 92 

CHAPTER V. 

Wadhams' Life at the Sulpician Seminary, Baltimore. 

1846-1850, 123 

7 



8 Contents, 

CHAPTER VI. 

PAGE 

Wadhams' Priesthood at St. Mary's Church and at the 
Cathedral, Albany.— The War of the Rebellion.— His 
Trip to Europe and the Holy Land. 1850-18 72, . 138 

CHAPTER VII. 

Wadhams Becomes Bishop of Ogdensburg. — His Lie 
and Labors in the New Diocese. —His Sufferings and 
Sudden Cure. — Trials. — His Last Illness and Death. 
1872-1891, ' 15 j 

APPENDIX. 

The Wadhams Family in England and America, . .193 



flntrobuctonn 



pHE object of the author is not to write a 
liMI; biography of Bishop Wadhams or any 
^p systematic sketch of his life. This I leave 
to other hands. I simply wish to record certain 
familiar memories I retain of that early and dear 
friend which might otherwise be lost ; memories 
of his early home and surroundings in the Adiron- 
dacks ; memories of those seminary days when 
with myself and others he was moving forward, 
in an Anglican atmosphere of mingled beliefs, 
romances, and illusions, toward the clear light 
and settled doctrine of the Catholic Church ; mem- 
ories of his priestly life, during a part of which 
I was his close companion, and memories also of 
a frequent and sweet intercourse which continued 
throughout his career in the episcopate, and ended 
only with his death. These reminiscences may 
be welcomed as valuable by some of my readers, 
partly because of the marked individuality of the 
man, and partly because of his early connection 
with a religious movement memorable in the his- 
tory of our American Church, but better known 
to Catholics generally in its effects than in its 

9 



i o Inti'oductory. 

causes or progressive course. One born to the 
faith looks upon the accession of converts into the 
Church as a man watches an incoming tide. He 
sees the waves fall tired on the shore, but cannot 
see what draws them or what drives them, or 
understand that panting but unsatisfied life out 
of which they leap. Perhaps the following pages 
may open to some of my readers a better knowl- 
edge of the external events and a clearer view 
of the interior springs of action by which a con- 
vert's course is urged and guided. 

Before, however, I take up my personal rec- 
ollections of my friend, it is proper to give some 
account of his birth, boyhood, and college life, 
which I am obliged to gather from the recollec- 
tions of others. 

Edgar P. Wadhams was born May 21st, 18 17, 
in the town of Lewis, Essex County, New York. 
He was the sixth and youngest child of General 
Luman Wadhams and his wife Lucy. His father, 
Luman, a native of Goshen, Connecticut, settled 
early in life at Charlotte, Vermont, and afterward 
moved to Lewis, in Essex County, New York. 
He finally fixed his residence in the adjoining 
town of Westport, giving name to the village of 
Wadhams Mills, where he died April 19th, 1832, 
in the fiftieth year of his age. He was an officer 
at the battle of Plattsburgh, and rose to the rank 
of general in the militia service. His wife, Lucy 
Prindle {nee Bostwick), the mother of Edgar, was 
a woman of great piety as well as remarkable for 



Introductory, 1 1 

sagacity, and a wondrous wisdom born of both 
these qualities. To her thoughtful care, pious 
moral training, and the example she gave by 
her conscientious discharge of every duty, is no 
doubt due in great part that life of manly princi- 
ple and nobility of soul which always character- 
ized the subject of these reminiscences. I knew 
her well, resided in the same house with her for 
several months, conversing with her daily, and 
have never lost the impression made upon me 
by a certain simple but marvellous tact she 
possessed which amounted to true wisdom. She 
survived her husband, General Wadhams, many 
years, living to see her son a priest, and died at 
the advanced age of eighty-four. Her body, as 
well as that of her husband, lies buried at Wad- 
hams Mills. 

We are not able to give much detail in regard 
to Edgar's childhood. There is, perhaps, no 
necessity for it. Let it suffice to say that there 
is testimony to the fact that from his earliest 
years Edgar was looked upon as a boy of great 
promise. He was sent to an academy at Shore- 
ham, Vermont, where he prepared for college. 
He entered Middlebury College in 1834, enroll- 
ing himself in the freshman class of that year. 
Some account of his course at this college is im- 
portant, not only to show what manner of man 
he was at that time, but because it was there that, 
although reared a Presbyterian, he became at- 
tracted toward Anglicanism, which he mistook 



T 2 Introductory. 

for something Catholic, and was led to unite 
himself to the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

We are indebted to the Rev. J. Avery Shep- 
herd, now an Episcopalian clergyman living in 
California, for nearly all we know of Wadhams' 
college career. There was a family connection 
between the two. Wadhams' sister, Mrs. Weeks, 
was the wife of Shepherd's uncle. It was at her 
house, six miles distant from Middlebury, that 
the two friends first met when about to enter 
that college. They were classmates, and roomed 
together during the ensuing four years. Shep- 
herd was a Baptist, but up to this time Wadhams, 
although born of Presbyterian parents, had never 
enrolled himself as a professed member of any 
Christian denomination. It was at Middlebury 
that Wadhams, to use his friend's expression, 
"became serious." He was observed to take off 
his hat when passing the Episcopal church. He 
soon obtained permission from the college au- 
thorities to attend service there. We are told also 
that on rising in the morning, which he did at 
four o'clock, he was accustomed to read aloud for 
one hour from Chapman's Sermons on Episcopacy. 
His friend when awaking would listen to this, 
although pretending to sleep. He had urged 
Wadhams to become a Baptist, but either Chap- 
man's sermons or Wadhams himself proved more 
persuasive, and after about three months both 
were .churchmen, and both active church mem- 
bers, In fact, these two students ran the whole 



Introductory. 1 3 

thing at Middlebury. There being no settled 
minister, they officiated alternately, Wadhams 
playing the organ when the other read the ser- 
vice, and vice versa. 

Wadhams graduated with honors from Middle- 
bury College in 1838. From this same college 
he received the degree of LL.D. a short time 
previous to his death. 



Reminiscences of Edgar P. Wadhams, 

FIRST BISHOP OF OGDENSBURG. 



Cbapter 1T* 



TOaDbams at tbe Episcopalian Seminary— tots 'BbbocU 
ntcs Zhexe— Some ©ft^banD IRecollections at tbe 
©utaet, ITntenfceS to Cbaracteri3e tbe dfcam 

iM;M| Y first acquaintance with Bishop Wadhams 
WMw began with the beginning of autumn in 
-^fp^ 1 842 . At that time I entered the General 
Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in'New York City, situated on Twentieth 
Street at the corner of Ninth Avenue. Edgar 
P. Wadhams, if I remember right, began at that 
time his third and last year at that seminary. I 
felt much interested in him, partly as being a 
kinsman in no very remote degree, but still more 
by a certain frankness, heartiness, and moral no- 
bility of character, which made him very at- 
tractive to all who knew him. Many of those 
who were in the seminary at that time have since 
made their mark in life, but need not be es- 
pecially mentioned here. The most remarkable 

15 



16 General Reminiscences. 

inmate of the institution at that time, and a most 
familiar friend of Wadhams, was Arthur Carey, 
a graduate of 1842, but still retaining his room 
at the seminary as being too young to receive 
orders. The moral beauty of Carey's character 
was of the highest type, and his intellectual supe- 
riority was also something wonderful. His in- 
fluence upon Wadhams was very great, as indeed 
it was upon many more of us, while Carey him- 
self was a devoted disciple of John Henry New- 
man, then a resident at Oxford, and afterwards 
a priest and cardinal of the Catholic Church. 
When, about a year after his graduation, Carey's 
name was put on the list of candidates for admis- 
sion to the ministry, a protest against his ordi- 
nation was made to Bishop Onderdonk by Dr. 
Anthon, of St. Mark's Church, and by Dr. Smith, 
of St. Peter's Church in Twentieth Street. He 
was charged with " Romanizing" tendencies. A 
committee of eight clergymen was appointed by 
the bishop to try him. On the committee were 
Drs. Smith and Anthon, his accusers, and Dr. 
Seabury, also a pastor in the city. Dr. Seabury 
published all the proceedings of the trial in the 
New York Churchman, of which he was then edi- 
tor. Carey was closely questioned, but, young 
as he was, the acuteness of his mind and the 
accuracy of his learning were so far in advance 
of his accusers that they were subjected to con- 
stant confusion, and unable to push their in- 
quiries as far as they would for fear of betraying 



Wadhams at the Seminary. ij 

their ignorance. This gave much amusement to 
Dr. Seabury, who was friendly to Carey, and 
afterwards to many readers of the Churchman. 
Bishop Onderdonk and the majority of the ex- 
amining committee acquitted Carey of unsound- 
ness in his doctrine, and soon after he presented 
himself to receive ordination. The ceremony 
took place at St. Stephen's Church, New York. 
This ceremony was interrupted in a manner so 
solemn and so startling that no one there present 
can ever forget it. The bishop, before the lay- 
ing on of hands, solemnly addressed the congre- 
gation and demanded : " If there be any one 
here present who has aught to say why any of 
these candidates should not receive," etc. — "let 
him come forth in the name of God." To the 
astonishment of all, Dr. Smith, of St. Peter's, 
arose in the middle of the church and protested 
against the ordination of Arthur Carey. The 
protest was couched in the most solemn language, 
beginning, if I remember right : " In the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost. Amen," etc. 

When Dr. Smith sat down, the Rev. Dr. An- 
thon arose and made a like protest with the same 
solemn formality. The charges of both were 
the same, namely, that Arthur Carey was un- 
faithful to the doctrine of his own church and 
imbued with the errors of Rome. The sensation 
that followed was something fearful, though the 
silence was profound. My father, who sat beside 



1 8 General Reminiscences. 

me, trembled from head to foot, and turned to 
me with a look of awe and wonder which I can 
never forget. " The bishop will ordain him all 
the same," said I. When Carey's accusers had 
finished their protest, Bishop Onderdonk arose 
from his seat and addressed the congregation. 
His attitude was majestic. He looked indignant 
and determined. He informed the congregation 
that the charges against Arthur Carey were not 
then brought f otward for the first time ; that he 
had already given him a trial upon the same 
complaints; that the same accusers had been 
appointed among his judges then ; and that Carey 
had been acquitted at that trial as perfectly sound 
in the faith. The bishop praised him also as 
eminently fitted for orders both by his great tal- 
ents and by the moral beauty of his character. 
"Therefore," he said, "I shall now proceed to 
ordain Mr. Carey with the other candidates, in 
spite of the scandalous interruption of these rev- 
erend protesters/' All present then breathed 
again with a deep feeling of relief, and the cere- 
monies went on to the end. 

As memory serves me, among those ordained 
to a deaconship at that time was Edgar P. Wad- 
hams. He loved Carey and sympathized with 
him fully. Carey died at the close of the follow- 
ing winter, on his w r ay to Cuba, and was buried 
in the ocean. Wadhams and I were in company 
when the intelligence of his death came, and we 
mourned for him as men mourn for a brother. 




Right Rev. Henry Gabriels, D.D., 
Present Bishop of Ogdensburg, N. Y. 



His Associates. 19 

Besides myself, several of Wadllams , compan- 
ions at this Episcopal Seminary have since be- 
come Catholics. The first was Edward Putnam, 
who left the seminary for that purpose in 1844. 
He became a priest and officiated for a while at 
St. Mary's Church, Albany, in 1848 and 1849, a 
short time before Father Wadhams' ministra- 
tions in the same parish. 

An intimate friend and companion at the sem- 
inary both of Wadhams and Carey was James 
A. McMaster, a very peculiar and notable char- 
acter, both when at that institution and during 
many long years afterwards as editor of a very 
influential and popular Catholic periodical, the 
Freeman s Journal. McMaster should, in the 
natural course of things, have been ordained at 
the same time with Carey and Wadhams. He 
was, however, too troublesome a responsibility 
for Bishop Onderdonk to carry. Not only were 
his tendencies toward Rome very decided, but 
he loved to make that fact stand out. He was 
always delighted when his strong enunciations 
of belief or opinion spread alarm in the Protestant 
camp. It became necessary to sacrifice McMaster 
in order to carry Carey and others through. 

Whicher, another companion of Wadhams at 
the seminary, was ordained a year later, and 
became pastor of an Episcopal church at Clay- 
ville, Oneida County, N. Y. About ten years 
later he became a Catholic, The late Monsig- 
nor Preston, vicar-general and chancellor of the 



20 General Reminiscences. 

Archdiocese of New York, a distinguished con- 
vert of this period, entered the seminary after 
Wadhams' departure, but in time to make ac- 
quaintance there with some students of the same 
circle and stamp. He moved into my room when 
I left it, saying, with what he intended for a 
great compliment, " I am happy to enter into 
quarters so decidedly Catholic." The full pith of 
this remark can scarcely be understood by those 
whose experience has never made them familiar 
with the Oxford movement, and who cannot re- 
member, as Bishop Wadhams could, how rife 
this General Seminary was at that time with the 
air of Puseyism, w T hich had a marked phraseology 
of its own, generally earnest enough, but having 
also its humorous side. 

Father William Everett, for so many years 
pastor of the Church of the Nativity in New 
York City, was a classmate and friend of Wad- 
hams at the seminary, and one of the leading 
spirits there among that class of students who 
aimed at being catholic without any intention at 
the time of becoming Catholics. He entered the 
church in 1850 or 185 1. 

On receiving deacon's orders in the Episcopal 
Church, Wadhams was assigned to duty in Essex 
County, N. Y., the whole county, if we remem- 
ber right, being included in his jurisdiction, his 
principal station being at Ticonderoga, with oc- 
casional services at Wadhams Mills and Port 
Henry. I maintained a correspondence with him 



A Deacon in Essex County. 21 

during the remainder of my own stay at the 
seminary, and in the autumn of 1844, or early 
in 1845, I joined him in Essex County. My 
eyesight had so far failed me that for the time 
being I could not prosecute my studies. I longed 
for his society, and at the same time we had ini- 
tiated a plan, very sincere but romantic enough 
to be sure, for introducing something like the 
monastic life into the North Woods. Another 
student of the seminary was also in the scheme, 
who proposed to join us later in the year when 
he should have graduated. I carried with me a 
full copy of the Breviary, in four volumes ; for 
we anticipated a time to come when we should 
grow into a full choir of monks and chant the 
office. We spent much of our time that winter 
at Ticonderoga village. Later, however, we es- 
tablished ourselves more permanently at Wad- 
hams Mills, lodging with his mother, who lived 
alone in the old house. We occupied two bed- 
rooms and another large room, which we used as 
a carpenter-shop, for we had learned that monks 
must labor with their hands when not occupied 
with prayer or study. We boarded ourselves, 
that is, we did our own cooking. I officiated as 
cook, occasionally helped by my friend. We 
did pretty well at first, aided by the instructions 
and supervision of the old lady, although she 
occasionally laughed at us, as when our fingers 
stuck in the dough, or when she found the bread 
all burned to a crisp for want of watching. 



22 General Reminiscences. 

Wadhams' favorite idea was to educate boys of 
the neighborhood, training them specially to a 
religious life, which should serve finally to stock 
our convent with good monks. A handful of 
boys who gathered with other children on Sun- 
days in the school-house for catechism seemed to 
afford a nucleus which might afterwards develop 
into a novitiate. 

We actually laid the foundations and built up 
the sides of a convent building. It was nothing, 
indeed, but a log-house and never received a 
roof, for the winter was intensely cold and the 
ensuing spring opened with events which sent 
me into the Catholic Church and to Europe, 
leaving nothing of the convent but roofless logs 
and a community of one. But I mistake; Wad- 
hams had a Canadian pony which, in honor of 
pious services to be thereafter rendered, we 
named Bern, and a cow which for similar reasons 
we named Bonte. 

Our log-house cloister was built on a lovely 
spot under the shelter of a hill which bounded 
a farm inherited by Wadhams from his father. 
The farm contained a fine stretch of woodland 
on the south, while the greater part from east to 
west was open and cultivated field, the half of 
which, high and terraced, looked down upon a 
lower meadow-land which extended on a perfect 
level to a fine stream bordering the farm on the 
east. Beyond the brook and along its edge 
ran the road from Wadhams Mills to Lewis. 



Monastery in the North Woods. 23 

There was much debate before we fixed on the 
site of our convent. A fine barn stood already 
built on the natural terrace near the south side, 
while under the terrace at the north end was a 
magnificent spring of the purest water. Where 
should the convent be, near the barn or near the 
spring? Every present convenience lay on the 
side of the barn, and the horse and cow were 
actual possessions. But our hopes looked brightly 
into the future. What would a great community 
of hooded cenobites do without a holy well near 
by? So we laid the foundations of the future 
pile on the edge of the terrace just above the 
spring. We did not consult either Be'ni or BontL 
In the mean while Wadhams and myself en- 
deavored to practise, in such ways as actual cir- 
cumstances would permit, a religious life, the 
truest type of which we even then believed to 
be found in the Catholic Church, though our 
knowledge of it was very imperfect. We com- 
menced Lent with a determination to fast every 
day on one meal alone and that not before three 
o'clock, with no meat, not even on Sundays. As 
we worked hard in our carpenter-shop besides 
other physical exercises, this privation soon be- 
gan to tell upon us. I took the cooking upon 
myself, he assisting in washing the dishes. My 
principal talent lay in cooking mush. This agreed 
with me and I throve on it very well, but Wad- 
hams, who was large, strong, and full-blooded, 
and to whom fasting was always something very 



24 General Reminiscences. 

severe, began after a time to look pale and wild. 
" Look here," said he one day — "look here, Wal- 
worth ! This mush may agree with a fellow like 
you, who have no body to speak of; but I can't 
stand it. I don't want to eat meat, but you must 
give me something else besides mush." "All 
right," said I, "you shall have something better 
to-morrow." So I killed a fat chicken and got 
Mother Wadhams to show me how to prepare 
and cook it. Whdn my friend came in for dinner 
I pointed it out to him triumphantly. "But," 
said he, "I can't eat meat in Lent!" "Well," 
said I, "I don't want you to. That is chicken" 
I really believed that chicken was allowed among 
Catholics, and succeeded in convincing him. We 
found Lent much easier after that. 

It was not easy for Wadhams to make the nec- 
essary rounds through Essex County in the win- 
ter-time. When starting from Wadhams Mills 
he could always command a horse and sleigh, 
but when setting out from other points he was 
often obliged to trudge through the deep snow 
for many miles on foot, to the great admiration 
even of the hardy inhabitants of the North Woods, 
who wondered at his sturdy strength as well as 
at his zeal. His fondness for children was re- 
markable. He would often rein in his horse or 
stop in his walks to question some strange child 
on the road. "Where do you live? What is 
your name? " he would ask; and always " Have 
you been baptized?" and "Do you say your 



Monastery in the North Woods. 25 

prayers? " And if answered favorably, he added, 
" Good for you ; that's the kind of boy to meet ! " 
He took me with him to witness a baptism. It 
was somewhere in the neighborhood of Port 
Henry. There was a whole family to be bap- 
tized, as I now remember, nine in number, all 
on their knees ranged in a row along the kitchen 
floor, which was the biggest room in the house. 
The zealous deacon did not spare the water. I 
held the basin, which was nearly empty when he 
got through, while the children and the floor 
were wet enough. He had no faith in sprinkling. 
It may seem that the surroundings . of this cere- 
mony were not very solemn, but I never saw 
people more deeply impressed by a religious rite 
than these poor, simple cottagers. 

The frank, open, guileless simplicity and en- 
ergy of Edgar Wadhams' character, and a cer- 
tain moral heroism which was always his, made 
his influence magnetic whenever any call to duty 
roused him into action. He then took command, 
and there were very few who felt like resisting. 
He had received the impression that a certain 
gentleman, a familiar friend and parishioner at 
one of his stations, frequented too often the vil- 
lage inn. There may have been nothing very 
serious in the matter, but he was a man of high 
character and influence, and a good church mem- 
ber. Mr. Wadhams felt it his duty to interfere. 
He announced his determination to me, and asked 
me to help him in drawing up a pledge to keep 



26 General Reminiscences. 

away from that inn, which he intended to make 
him sign. The gentleman was himself a man of 
great energy and pride of character, a captain 
of one of the lake boats, and more accustomed 
to command than to obey. "All right," I said, 
"go ahead. He won't sign it, but it may do him 
some good to see it." "He will sign it," was 
the reply. " I should like to know how he will 
get out of it." The captain was thunderstruck. 
"Who told you to bring this to me?" said he. 

" Did ? " (naming a common friend). "No 

matter about that," was the resolute rejoinder. 
"There it is, and you must sign it." He did 
sign it. His own strong nature yielded in the 
presence of a pure and noble spirit the magnet- 
ism of which he himself, a true man, could not 
help but recognize. 

The idea of marrying never seems to have 
occupied Wadhams' mind. From the time of 
his entering upon the study of divinity the mar- 
riage state for him was out of all question. His 
views in regard to all clerical celibacy are plainly 
and strongly stated in a correspondence between 
himself and an old school-fellow, a candidate for 
orders also, like himself. This correspondence 
took place in 1843, while Wadhams, then an 
Episcopalian, had just begun his career of deacon 
in Essex County. His friend, already uxorious 
in intention and very garrulous on the subject 
of girls, took occasion to consult his old class- 
mate. The reply came in a letter from Port 



Monastery in the North Woods. 27 

Henry, dated October 18th, 1843. A few extracts 
will suffice to show Wadhams' deep aversion to 
the idea of a married clergy. It amounts to an 
abhorrence : 

" My view of a priest is, that he is a man so 
long as he remains unmarried, and as soon as he 
is married he is an old granny. ... I am not a 
fit person to ask advice upon this subject. My 
prejudices are wholly and forever against a mar- 
ried clergy. They are generally a fat, lazy, self- 
indulgent, good-for-nothing, time-serving race. 
. . . To your second argument, that there is not 
enough to keep a celibate employed, I know not 
what to reply." 

Of course no reply could be made by a young 
minister to such an argument as this, without 
strange thoughts of the value of a church and 
clergy where so little occasion for clerical work 
could exist. 

The question of clerical celibacy was one much 
mooted amongst Episcopalians at this time, and 
particularly by the students at the General Sem- 
inary. One party strongly decried the marriage 
of clergymen as un-Catholic, and professed to 
see the seminary surrounded by old maids, 
spreading their snares for unfledged seminarians. 
On the other hand, the evangelical party with 
equal vehemence denounced celibacy as popish 
and a revival of that heretical doctrine, " forbid- 
ding to marry," against which St. Paul cautioned 



28 General Reminiscences. 

the early Christians. A practical joke was played 
at the seminary upon one of the students, an 
earnest opponent of celibacy, by pinning against 
his door a pair of baby stockings, underneath 
which was written, "A plea against popery!" 
Such discussions, of course, had contributed to 
augment Wadhams' aversion to marriage. 

During my visit to him in Essex County, and 
in the spring of that year, we found time to 
spend a few days' in Montreal. To us, whose 
minds were so strongly inclined to the old church 
and the old faith, the chief attraction was the de- 
sire to see a Catholic city, and the Catholic life 
and Catholic institutions which abounded there. 
When we came to the coast of the St. Lawrence, 
opposite Montreal, the river was breaking up 
and not yet free from floating ice. There was 
no way to cross except in batteaux, and though 
the boatmen assured us the passage was suffi- 
ciently safe, it looked highly dangerous; in fact 
the flood was so high that an American gentle- 
man and lady who, like us, were on their way to 
Montreal, were afraid to cross, and much time 
was lost while the boatmen were urging them to 
get into the batteau. A French gentleman be- 
longing to Montreal was there also, and, wearied 
by the delay, succeeded in rousing their courage 
by appealing to their religious pride. "Come, 
come, my friends! " said he, "don't be alarmed. 
You are, I am sure, good Protestants, and ought 
not to be afraid to die. If you do, you'll go 



Trip to Montreal. 29 

straight to heaven without any purgatory. I 
am nothing but a poor papist and full of sin ; and 
yet you see I am not afraid. Entrez, monsieur; 
cntrez, madame ! " 

We were anxious to hear the boatmen sing. 
In those days all the world was familiar with the 
"Canadian Boatman's Song," but not everyone 
had heard Canadians sing it. The men were too 
much occupied with their labor to be in a humor 
to sing. We would not have pressed the point ; 
but our French companion, who seemed to be a 
man of authority and well known to them, in- 
sisted upon it, and stood up to enforce his orders. 
"Yes, messieurs, they shall sing for you. Chan- 
tez ! mes freres, chant ez ! Quoi ! Chantez, dis-je ! " 
They did sing, and we had romance enough to 
enjoy it, although not a little alarmed by the 
wild riding of the boat and the blocks of ice 
that surrounded us. "Great Christopher! " said 
Wadhams, "this is glorious." 

In Montreal we cared little to see anything ex- 
cept its churches, its convents, and its religious 
services. At the Gray Nuns' we each bought a 
rosary. We inquired with much interest whether 
these were blessed, but were informed that this 
was .not done before selling, and that we must 
apply to a priest to get them blessed for our spe- 
cial use. Of course, not being of the true fold, 
we were not in a condition to get this done. We 
did the next best thing to this that we could 
think of. We dipped them into the holy-water 



30 General Reminiscences. 

font at Notre Dame. This was done on the 
. sly. 

To lis, who knew little at that time of the his- 
tory of Montreal, and of the interest which old 
traditions attach to so many of its localities, the 
chief point of attraction was this great parish 
church of Notre Dame. Its size astonished us, 
but the religious novelties which we witnessed 
there were still more wonderful. Conscious of 
our ignorance, we were afraid of committing 
some transgression at each step. We felt devout 
enough to kneel at every altar, but were afraid 
of exposing ourselves to ridicule by some blun- 
der. A young Frenchman took us to Vespers 
with him. When the "pain benit " was handed 
around through the pews our Catholic friend told 
us to take some and eat it ; but utterly ignorant 
of what it was, we dared not even touch it, 
though he laughed when he saw us shrink from 
it and said it wouldn't hurt us. 

To Wadhams' musical ear the chanting at this 
church opened a new world of religious delight. 
In the sanctuary stood rows of chanters in rich 
copes. Their singing was followed at times by 
a burst of music from the organ-loft. A crowd 
of children lifted up their voices from one of the 
galleries. This was supplemented by another 
crowd of children whose echo came in with a 
new surprise from the opposite gallery. All this 
may seem very commonplace to those who began 
life as Catholics, heirs of the faith and " to the 



The Breaking Up. 31 

manner born," and who live near to cathedrals 
or large churches. These can have no idea of 
the effects produced on the minds of men brought 
up in the barrenness of Protestantism by the in- 
finite variety of thought and worship in the great 
church Catholic, Perhaps it is to his remem- 
brance of these services at Notre Dame that so 
many of our New York congregations owe the 
combination of choir and sanctuary music first 
introduced at the Albany Cathedral by Bishop 
Wadhams, when he was its rector. 

Shortly after this visit to Montreal, and about 
the opening of the summer of 1845, I left m y 
friend for New York City in order to enter the 
Catholic Church. We parted with great regret, 
but his mind was in no mood to undertake to 
dissuade me from my purpose. When, however, 
I urged him to go with me — "Don't hurry me, 
Walworth," he said; "I am in a position of re- 
sponsibility and confidence, and when I leave, 
if leave I must, it shall be done handsomely. 
You have no charge. You have only to let your 
bishop know what you are about doing, and then 
do it." 

I have no recollections nor any data to show 
in what way Wadhams announced and perfected 
his withdrawal from the Anglican body. He 
was not a man to neglect any necessary civili- 
ties, nor to forget any kindly relations which had 
existed between him and early associates in re- 
ligion. That he was cautious, however, as well 



32 General Reminiscences. 

as frank and generous, appears from the follow- 
ing fact. When asked to send in a formal re- 
nunciation of the Episcopal ministry, he did not 
think proper to do so. Perhaps he thought this 
might seem to imply a recognition on his part of 
some validity in the deacon's orders which he 
had received in that sect. It was far from his 
mind to acknowledge the Anglican body as a 
branch — even a dead branch — of the true Catho- 
lic Church. 

I carried out my own purpose by a letter from 
me to my diocesan, Bishop De Lancey, of West- 
ern New York, asking him to take my name off 
from his list of candidates for orders. This letter 
crossed on its way one from him directing me to 
come to Geneva for ordination. I then went to 
New York, where I made my profession of faith 
in the Church of the Holy Redeemer in Third 
Street, and soon after left, in company with 
McMaster and Isaac Hecker, for the Redemptor- 
ist novitiate at St. Trond, in Belgium. Wad- 
hams became a Catholic the following year. A 
letter to me, addressed from Baltimore, brought 
the announcement of this happy event. I can- 
not find the letter itself, but one characteristic 
passage in it is pretty well fixed in my memory. 
I had just before written to him giving some 
account of our convent life at St. Trond. "It's 
all right/' said he; "I am a Catholic now as 
well as yourself. But don't talk to me about 
your convent rules and routine for getting up 



The Breaking Up. 33 

early, reciting the office, meditating, fasting, dis- 
cipline, recreations, and mortifications, and all 
that sort of thing. I have just been scoured 
through a general confession. You can't beat 
that." 

After our separation in 1845, which took place 
at the steamboat landing near Ticonderoga, we 
did not meet again until the winter of 1851, 
when I was a missionary and he a priest at Al- 
bany in the household of Bishop McCloskey, and 
officiating at St. Mary's, then the cathedral of 
that diocese. We were afterwards together once 
more for a year at the new cathedral in Bishop 
Conroy's time, and continued to live near each 
other in the same city until his consecration as 
Bishop of Ogdensburg, and his departure for that 
see. He was pleased with his appointment and 
displayed no affectation of humility in regard to 
it. " You must feel somewhat depressed," I said 
to him, "in view of all this new responsibility." 
He replied, "No, I don't. I like it first rate." 
He asked me to draw a device for his official 
seal. Looking upon him as an apostle to the 
cold region of the Adirondacks, and venturing 
upon a poor joke, I drew an iceberg, with a sled 
drawn by a reindeer at the foot of it, and above 
it the north star. The motto which I chose for 
him, suggested by this star, was " Iter para tutum. " 
"Well," said he, "I like the motto and the star, 
but we don't need any icebergs or reindeer at 
Ogdensburg." He was much attached to the 
3 



34 General Reminiscences. 

district embraced in his diocese and to all its in- 
terests. " Hang it!" said he once with great 
animation, " I should like the people of New 
York to find out that we are something better 
than a convenient water-shed." 



Cbapter IT 

Correspondence between TKHaDbams anfc ©ID associates 
at tbe Seminary— ^Efforts to Establisb /Iftonastic 
Xife. 

1841-1844. 

HAVE now so far drawn on my personal 
reminiscences of Bishop Wadhams as to 
present to the reader a general and, as I 
trust, a characteristic sketch of the man, such as 
nature and divine grace conspired to make him. 
It is, if I have succeeded in my design, a picture 
which may serve as frontispiece to what follows. 
I propose now to go over the same general 
ground again, and by producing letters which 
have come into my hands, chiefly such letters as 
he had himself treasured up from his correspond- 
ents, to show him in such light as the eyes of 
friendship saw him, more especially during that 
momentous transition time which led him and 
so many other converts, both in England and 
in the United States, into the bosom of the holy 
Catholic Church. 

One of the earliest of these letters is from 
James Lloyd Breck, a young friend of Wadhams, 
in sympathy, like himself, with Newman, Carey, 

35 



36 Reminiscences, 1841-1844. 

and others. Breck was at Nashotah, in Wis- 
consin . His letter is dated " October 2 1 st, 1 842 . ' ' 
The Nashotah mission was a somewhat romantic 
attempt to found an Episcopal monastery in 
the Northwest. Breck was the " superior " or 
"prior." Besides the superior, the community at 
this time consisted of one assured member, the 
Rev. William Adams, who was at the head of 
the school department, while Breck labored on 
the mission as ' evangelist. The number of 
scholars in this school is not stated in the letter, 
but, as the writer assures us, "the foundation 
of a permanent church school, in all respects 
adapted to the most Catholic principles," had 
been laid. A seminary was also embraced in 
this institution, and thus far had a nest-egg con- 
sisting of one seminarian. The size of the in- 
stitute at this time may be estimated from the 
dimensions of the building, which measured thir- 
teen feet by seventeen feet. It consisted of one 
room only, which served as kitchen, study, sleep- 
ing apartment, etc., for the whole community. 
Two vocations for this monastery had not turned 
out well. A young clergyman, the son of an 
Episcopal bishop, had felt obliged to absent 
himself too frequently, for too long periods, 
from the cloister. Another difficulty was that 
he had engaged himself to be married. The 
other applicant had been found too scrupu- 
lous. Breck and Adams were only deacons as 
yet, and the applicant, who was in priest's orders, 



The Nashotah Monastery. 37 

considered it as not canonical or rubrical to have 
a private communion service for their benefit. 
The household had, in consequence, soon been 
reduced to the slender community already stated. 
In his letter the reverend superior earnestly 
urges Wadhams to come and join them. 

" If," he writes, " dear Wadhams, you conclude 
to come, remember we receive you on the ground 
of our first principles, which are: (1) so long as 
connected with this institution to remain unmar- 
ried; (2) to yield implicit and full obedience to 
all the rules and regulations of the body; (3) 
community of goods so long as community of 
purpose; (4) teaching on the staunch Catholic 
principles; (5) preaching from place to place on 
circuits — route, mode, etc., to be determined by 
the bishop or by one authorized by him. We 
sincerely hope that you will find it your duty to 
join us. ... I learn from Brother Adams that 
he has just written to our dear Brother Carey. 
How greatly we long after him, as a companion 
in our labors! " 

A letter from this Brother Adams to Wad- 
hams, directed, like that from Breck, to the Gen- 
eral Seminary in Twentieth Street, New York 
City, is dated " December 6th, 1841." He begins 
by giving at some length a description of the 
country surrounding this new monastery; its 
beauty, its productions, and the character of its 
inhabitants. These latter he praises far above 
their neighbors of Illinois, Michigan, and Ken- 



38 Reminiscences, 1841-1844. 

tucky. " Nowhere have I seen any specimen of 
that vile animal that is called 'loafer' among 
them. . . . They have none of the Eastern preju- 
dices against the church ; they will listen to any 
sermon respectfully and with attention; not in 
the yawning, spitting, pick-tooth, boots-upon-the- 
bench sort of style and attitude in which your 
Kentuckian graces the house of God, but calmly 
and respectfully ; and yet, mark you, my brother, 
a sermon, howevfer strong it may be, or however 
pointed, will have as little effect upon these men 
as boiling water flung in the face of a marble 
statue. Sermons can make no impression." 

The writer then proposes his remedy for this 
difficulty, which lies in an example of penance 
and self-mortification united to a " Catholic " 
churchmanship. He then urges his friend Wad- 
hams as follows : 

" Dear brother, if you can in almost every way 
deny yourself, can be content to remain unmar- 
ried for an indefinite period, to live on the coars- 
est food, to deny yourself the pleasure of culti- 
vated society; then come to Wisconsin. . . . 
Whether you do come or no, in the name of God, 
and if you would not fall into many a perilous 
pit, begin a systematic course of self-denial, 
fasting upon the stationary days of the church. 
This is the only thing that will save a man from 
the legal spirit on the one side, and the luscious 
and animal spirit of religionism on the other. 



The N as hot ah Monastery. 39 

If you want direction on this point, Carey will 
give it you. The spirit you see in him (what a 
spirit it is!) is the offspring of this practice." 

Not long after his letter Adams visited, our 
theological seminary in Twentieth Street; and 
many of us gathered around him, listening eager- 
ly to his description of Nashotah, which seemed 
to us like a holy shrine set up amid the prairies, 
the nucleus of another Citeaux, with Breck for a 
St. Bernard. It must have increased very much 
from this small beginning. Nearly twenty years 
later three students from that institute visited 
me when I was officiating as parish priest in St. 
Peter's Church, Troy. They were tired of the 
kind of Catholicism they found at Nashotah, sin- 
cere though it was, and were resolved to become 
true Catholics. One, named McCurry, attached 
himself as priest to the diocese of Albany and 
was assigned to St. John's Church, in that city. 
The second is Father Henry L. Robinson, now 
rector at Chicopee, in the diocese of Springfield, 
Mass. The third convert was Graves, who, after 
finishing his studies, became connected with one 
of the Wisconsin dioceses. Nashotah is now, as 
I am informed, a flourishing seminary, receiving 
students from various parts of the United States. 
It is considered quite a conservative institution. 

Whether Wadhams felt any inclination for this 
attempt at monastic life in Nashotah, I cannot 
say. Some others did — myself among the num- 



40 Reminiscences, 1841—1S44. 

ber. I endeavored, but without success, to per- 
suade my father to transfer me to it from the 
seminary in New York. He took time to con- 
sider, and consulted Dr. Horatio Potter, then in 
charge of St. Peter's Church, Albany, but after- 
ward Bishop of New York. The answer was 
unfavorable, Nashotah being represented as a 
nest where Catholic Protestants might be fledged 
into Catholics of the Roman type. My father 
gained still stronger impressions of danger from 
a Presbyterian clergyman, the famous Dr. Cox, 
formerly of Brooklyn. When asked what he 
thought of Puseyism, his answer was given in 
his own characteristic language : " Puseyism, sir, 
is the quintessence of the blackness of the dark- 
ness of the dark ages squirted into the nineteenth 
century." The doctor had some reason to speak 
in strong language. Puseyism had invaded his 
own household. He is said to have uttered his 
grief upon a public occasion in the following 
manner : " Hear, O Heavens ! and give ear, O 
Earth ! I have nourished and brought up chil- 
dren, and they have turned Episcopalians! " 

Adams, the head of the school department at 
Nashotah, surrendered to Cupid in due time, 
marrying the daughter of Bishop Kemper. This 
was a great grief to Breck. The good prior, 
unable to cope with the "married influence, ,, 
eventually turned his back on Nashotah and start- 
ed a similar institution at Faribault, Minn. The 
fate against which he struggled followed him to 



Letter of Arthur Carey. 41 

this new plant also. Breck himself ere long got 
entangled matrimonially. 

In all six students are known to have left 
Nashotah for the true fold at that time. Another 
convert in the immediate vicinity was the Rev. 
William Markoe, rector of St. John Chrysostom's 
Church. With him came his wife and his sister- 
in-law, who is now a nun. 

I introduce next a precious letter from Arthur 
Carey, written after Wadhams had taken deacon's 
orders and was settled in Essex County. It was 
directed to Ticonderoga. Carey was looked upon 
at the seminary, both by professors and students, 
and by a host of others outside, as a sort of Saint 
Aloysius. His was, indeed, a beautiful and lov- 
able character, and only a man like Wadhams 
could have secured and cemented a friendship so 
strong as that which existed between these two 
pure and fervent souls. We give the letter, 
therefore, as a memorial of both : 

"New York, October 23d, '43. 
"Dearest Wadhams: Do you recollect how 
happy I used to be when you tapped at my room 
door at the seminary, and I said 'Come in! ' and 
in you came; and how I used to jump up to re- 
ceive you, and how we used almost to hug each 
other; and how we sang together, and, horrible 
to tell, looked over the breviary together, and 
talked and laughed together ; and how you 
abused my pope, on the door, and how I took his 



4 2 Reminiscences, 1 841-1844. 

part, and how we discussed all the affairs of 
the church so wisely, and then adjourned and 
took a nice long walk, and so on? And now it 
is all over, and we are parted, and you are doing 
I know not what, and I am all alone in my room, 
writing to you, and feeling funny, queer, strange, 
a kind of blue feeling— do you know what I 
mean? I hope not, for it is very far indeed from 
pleasant ; and yet I seem to wish you might oc- 
casionally feel bhie, so as to sympathize with me, 
and to make you think over past times, that are 
gone forever, and are never coming back again. 
Think of that: Never coming back again! No, 
never! I have a good deal, or at least a little, 
news to tell you, but it seems so natural to run 
on in this old-fashioned, loose way that I hardly 
like to stop it. Does it remind you of old times? 
Does it make you think of those times, when you 
used to visit me and eat brown bread and sit 
before the fire? Or, are you now too parsonical 
for these seminary reminiscences? It is cruel 
even to hint that you have got above those times, 
when I know perfectly well that you have not, 
and that you will not in a hurry — I mean that 
you never will. Will you ever? Will you ever, 
Wadhams? Ah, why do not you answer? Why 
do not you say, 'No, never!' and pacify me? 
Why do not you speak? But, poor me! it is not 
your fault; you can't speak to me when you 
are so far away, can you? If you could, you 
would, would not you? Wouldn't you try and 



Letter of Arthur Carey. 43 

make me laugh now, and cheer me tip a bit, if 
you were here? Yes, to be sure you would, like 
a good fellow as you are, ain't you? This is 
something like the way we used to run on to- 
gether, I think ; but I must stop it now and begin 
to be serious. And to begin, I must beg ten 
thousand pardons for forgetting so shamefully 
to leave the Critic for you to take with you. I 
have been thinking ever since that I would send 
it by post, but my brother tells me it would cost 
you a dollar in postage. Tell me what I am to 
do, and it shall immediately be attended to. If 
you tell me to send this one by post, I shall con- 
clude you will wish me to continue and send 
them all the same way; unless you say to the 
contrary. Pardon me for my carelessness. And 
now about myself. I am engaged, as Dr. Sea- 
bury's assistant. His vestry renewed their call 
immediately after the convention, and as the 
bishop urged me strongly to accept it, I have 
done so for six months. The salary is five hun- 
dred dollars per annum — quite enough to support 
me, but no more. I am lodging at 101 Charlton 
Street, quite near the church. I preach on Sun- 
day afternoons, and open the church for Wednes- 
day and Friday services, morning and evening, 
and saints' day services. I was afraid to begin 
with daily services, and the doctor thought better 
not at present. He says I may do anything I 
please, and he will never interfere with me, but 
always support me, which is pleasant, at all 



44 Reminiscences, 1841-1844. 

events. Dr. Sherwood, of Hyde Park, gave me 
a book (which I must lend you, as soon as I 
see you) by old Dr. Smith, of Connecticut. It 
is very interesting indeed. Its title is Primi- 
tive Psalmody, and he maintains that chanting 
is the only canonical ecclesiastical music; that 
metre psalm-singing is an abomination, and 
that metre hymns are only to be tolerated. He 
is very warm, quite eloquent, and rather learn- 
ed; he is extremely severe on the Puritans 
and Calvinist party, and wonderfully polite and 
reverential toward the Church of Rome. He 
was himself a very good musician. He was a 
Scotchman, and came over with Bishop Sea- 
bury. Dr. Sherwood was his pupil, and he is 
a churchman of the very highest grade and an 
admirer of the O. [Oxford] Tracts and the British 
Critic, of which he is a 'constant reader.' Please 
direct to me, at my lodgings, when you write, 
and this you must soon and frequently do, and I will 
endeavor, as I can, to answer you. Isn't Bishop 
Mcllvaine cutting some strange capers? He will 
do mischief yet, before he stops ; it is impossible 
to say what he may not do, if he once makes up 
his mind to it ; but I doubt whether he carries 
any great weight out of his own diocese. The 
laity and clergy cannot really do much harm in 
our church, because they can never carry any- 
thing against the bishops ; I suppose the bishops 
can always carry their own dioceses ; but on the 
other hand, the bishops may do almost any 



Monastic Scheming. 45 

amount of harm, if they be once opposed to each 
other. Our diocesan organization enables each 
bishop to separate his own diocese, in effect, from 
all others ; and so we may place ourselves in a posi- 
tion of relative schism, and eventually break up 
our general convention. McMaster is now sitting 
by my side ; he has just come down from the 
seminary, and is now reading to me out of the 
October number of the British Critic. He sends 
his best love to you. 

" Yours ever in all brotherly love, 

"A. Carey." 

The active religious zeal fermenting in the 
minds of the more fervent students at the Gen- 
eral Seminary, and looking forward to future 
work, extended itself in two directions. There 
was much interest in foreign missions. Some 
took a special interest in China and the Eastern 
countries of Asia. Others were more interested 
in Bishop Southgate's efforts to establish an 
unity between Anglicanism and the ancient 
schismatic Greek churches. Not that these stu- 
dents looked upon the Eastern churches as schis- 
matic, for that would have placed themselves in 
the same category ; but there was a feeling that 
the nearer Anglicans, with their " apostolical suc- 
cession," could be made to harmonize with the 
various Greek churches, the more appearance of 
real unity they would present in the face of that 
great church whose centre was at Rome, but 



46 Reminiscences, 1 841-1844. 

whose circumference encloses all nations and all 
ages. 

A missionary society was existing at the semi- 
nary and was in a flourishing state. There was a 
class of students, however, in whose minds there 
was a strong yearning for what in the Catholic 
Church is called "the religious life;" meaning 
not merely a general aspiration toward Christian 
perfection, but embracing those special means 
to this end which consist in a mingling of com- 
munity life with a seclusion from the w r orld. It 
is hard, nevertheless, for an earnest American 
mind, however much it may long for internal 
purification and sanctification, to divest itself of 
the thought of active work for others, and there- 
fore, in the mind of Wadhams and men of his 
own type, the highest ideal of a Christian minis- 
try naturally took the form of a community of 
missionaries bound to poverty, chastity, and 
obedience. The institute at Nashotah was an 
honest and earnest attempt at this ; and no won- 
der that so many eyes at the New York seminary 
were fixed upon that land of lakes and prairies. 
New York State, however, had its wilderness in 
the North Woods, of which Essex County formed 
a part. There, immediately upon his ordination, 
was stationed Edgar P. Wadhams. There he 
was already doing missionary work, with a heart 
yearning after perfection. This pointed him out 
as a natural centre round whom others might 
gather. What has just been said will make the 



Monastic Scheming. 47 

following letter seem both natural and intelligi- 
ble. Henry McVickar, the writer, had been a 
fellow-seminarian with Wadhams, was a class- 
mate of my own, was familiar and in active sym- 
pathy with both. Let me also say of him here, 
briefly but emphatically, that he was a most fer- 
vent soul of rare endowments, and a Christian 
gentleman of the most perfect type. 

His letter to Wadhams, directed to Ticondero- 
ga from Chelsea, bears the date of August 30th, 
1844. It must be understood that " Chelsea" 
was then the name for that part of New York 
City in which is situated the General Seminary, 
at the corner of Ninth Avenue and Twentieth 
Street. The letter was, therefore, written in 
McVickar' s room at the seminary. After some 
previous matter, which for brevity's sake I omit, 
he launched into the subject which was upper- 
most in his mind in the following words : 

" Walworth and myself have been plotting 
against your freedom all the morning, and as I 
don't feel easy I propose to confess the w T hole 
truth to you — which is this, that we propose of- 
fering our assistance in transforming you into a 
monk, Fratcr or Pater, whichever may seem best. 

" Mr. Dyer's death (what a blow it must have 
been to you! I can well feel) has opened the 
Essex County mission so that it may be put upon 
a new and better footing (I speak under correc- 
tion). You may remember some conversation 



48 Reminiscences, 1841-1844. 

we had together before you left here, in which 
you expressed the opinion that you might find 
one or two young men, desirous of preparing for 
the ministry, who would live with you and form 
the nucleus of such an institution as Nashotah. 
I wish to remind you of the idea you then brought 
out. I confess it struck me very much at the 
time, and has been a hope next my heart ever 
since. 

" Can anything' be done to realize it ? Are you 

inclined to it? Will Judge B back you? If 

so, let me know ; when it will be needed I will 
provide some more backing. In the mean time I 
can offer you a coadjutor after your own warm 
heart — Walworth, . . . who finds himself un- 
able on account of his eyes to proceed with the 
seminary course. . . . Inclination would lead 
him to Breck, but in compliance with his father's 
wishes he gives that up, and he now looks to 
your quarter. He could lay-read and teach, with 
a moderate use of his eyes. ... I have seen 
some late letters from Breck, by which he ap- 
pears to be prospering. Although he is the only 
clergyman, he has among his students some five 
lay-readers, and thus supplies twelve or thirteen 
stations every Sunday, and finds his efficiency far 
greater than he could have expected. 

" Walworth proposes to come and see you in 
September — say the fourteenth; meanwhile he 
will be here ; and we should like to hear from 
you in the interval." 



Monastic Scheming. 49 

It seems very probable that even at this early- 
date Wadhams' mind had been visited by strong 
misgivings as to the character of the church to 
which he was attached — whether he could safely 
trust himself in it as being in any true sense a 
branch of the church of Christ. There is a pas- 
sage in this letter which evidently shows that 
McVickar believed him to be troubled with mis- 
givings of this kind. The passage refers to some 
previous letter of Wadhams' : 

" I fear your rainy sky in Essex makes you 
low-spirited. ... I had intended to urge you to 
give up the idea of the possibility of your leav- 
ing the mother who begot you to God, but I cannot 
bring myself to believe that you will ever leave 
an altar on which lies the body of Our Lord while 
life is in you. 

" Whatever is true we have a right to believe 
and act upon, but always with prudence, temper- 
ing truth with mercy, 'Jesus with Mary/ 

" It was very kind of you to write, and I shall 
long to hear from you again. I beg the benefit 
of your prayers at the 'offering of the Salutary 
Host, ' and remain, 

" Yours most sincerely, 

"Henry McVickar/' 

Shortly after the above letter Wadhams came 
down to New York, and upon his return to his 
mission took me with him. On our way north 
we visited McMaster, at Hyde Park, and the 



50 Reminiscences, 1 841-1844. 

Rev. Mr. Wheaton, at Poughkeepsie. McMaster 
was full of advanced ideas and disposed to rally 
ns both as slow-coaches. When driving one day 
from Hyde Park to Poughkeepsie, as we passed 
an Episcopal church McMaster called out sud- 
denly : " What are you taking your hat off to, 
Wadhams ? To that old meeting-house ? There's 
nothing inside of that but a communion table, 
where the vestrymen put their hats. Wait till 
you come to a re&l church with a real altar and a 
sacrifice. ,, 

We did not find Mr. Wheaton at home, but 
visited the church in which he then officiated as 
assistant. While standing outside the chancel 
our advanced friend said : " There are four sac- 
raments administered in this church, if any at 
all." "Baptism, the Lord's Supper, and Con- 
firmation," said Wadhams; "that makes three; 
but what is the fourth? " " Why, Penance," said 
McMaster. " Do you see that chair inside the 
railing? That's where Wheaton sat when I made 
my confession to him. It was something new 
for him and he didn't want to do it, but I in- 
sisted upon it; and didn't I frighten the life 
out of him ! " Years afterward it was a pleasure 
to meet Dr. Wheaton when he had become a 
Catholic. 

Wadhams and I proceeded from thence to 
Ticonderoga, the trip from Troy to Whitehall 
being made on the canal. After a few weeks I 
was obliged to return to New York to consult my 



Monastic Scheming, 51 

oculist. From there McVickar and I addressed 
a joint letter, or rather two Jetters on the same 
sheet, to our friend at Ticonderoga. Mine runs 
as follows: 

" Dear Father Edgar : If this epistle should 
be too brief, charge my eyes with the offence. I 
don't know where to direct it to, but trust it will 
find you at Ti. I will be ready to come back 
to Wadhams Mills just as soon as you wish 
me. . . . Please write me immediately. . . . 
Say what books you would have me purchase. 

McV has just given me a check for $50 for 

tools, books, etc. I shall purchase all the Lives 
of Saints, breviaries, and two or three manuals 
of devotion ; what more would you like in the 
way of books or else? Can the cooking-stove, 
shovel and tongs, beds, bedding, etc., be obtained 
best in Essex Co. ? Shall I bring writing paper, 
etc. ? We are, I think, all three ready {i.e., will- 
ing) for action. May God and Our Lady prosper 

us ! My love to Judge B , etc. . . . 

" Yours faithfully forever, 

"Cla. W." 

This is McVickar ' s letter: 

" November 6th, 1844. 

" My Dear Wadhams : Walworth's return last 

Saturday gave me the greatest satisfaction. I 

had missed his sympathy more than I could have 

suspected I should, and I can appreciate better 



52 Reminiscences, 1 841-1844. 

than before the comfort you will be to one an- 
other this winter. 

" Any plans you shall adopt I shall subscribe 
as the best, only I would have you consider this 
winter as one of trial, and on that account per- 
haps, as well as others, we should practise the 
doctrine of reserve; consider the mighty game 
we are playing, and how sure we ought to be of 
our moves before we make them ; but in all these 
matters you are a far better judge than I am, 
and I am ashamed (if it were not an evidence of 
the interest I take) of my self-sufficiency. 

"I hear that they want to call McMaster to 
Fishkill, if the bishop will ordain him; but the 
bishop is so full of his own matters (having been 
presented for trial for immoral conduct) that he 
cannot bestow much thought upon Mac, who has 
had a severe trial. Our turns may not be very 
far distant. 

" The Lives of the English Saints I am delighted 
with, and would not part with them upon any 
consideration. 

" Could you not manage to pick up some orphan 
child this winter belonging to no one (the younger 
the better), over whom you might exercise com- 
plete control? They are the stuff we must in a 
great measure depend upon. As my letter is 
made up of patches, I will end it by an extract 
[from] Ward's book which may point out the 
course 'the Apostolicals ' in England would ad- 
vise: 'However, the one method that carries 



Monastic Scheming. 53 

God's blessing with it of reforming a bad system 
is first of all to load the existing framework with 
all possible good, if it will bear it well ; if not, 
God himself has solved for us the question and 
the system breaks down with no direct agency of 
ours ' (p. 368). 

" Your promised letter I shall expect with great 
anxiety, and I shall feel authorized hereafter to 
apply to you for guidance in any difficulties into 
which I may fall, and shall ever remain, with 
the sincerest love, 

" Yours truly, 

"Henry McVickar." 

All the earnestness and hopefulness with which 
we three aspirants after monasticism set to work 
to realize our vision is to be seen in our purchase 
of breviaries and other books for prayer and pious 
reading, and of tools for manual labor, for we 
believed, with St. Bernard and his Cistercians, 
that good monks must labor as well as pray. 
That hope was very high in our hearts may be 
seen from the fact that Wadhams and McVickar 
made their wills to secure a sort of endowment 
for the institute. I, who had no other property 
but myself either in possession or in prospect, had 
only myself to bequeath, and I did it with a will. 
We had even fixed upon a name for our " Clair- 
vaux," which was to be called St. Mary's, and 
our minds were sometimes occupied in designing 
cloisters. I have no personal recollection of 



54 Reminiscences, 1841-1S44. 

McMaster as included in our proposed commu- 
nity. It would seem, however, from the follow- 
ing letter (written in 1844, and mailed from 
Hyde Park, N. Y.), that he had offered himself 
to Wadhams for some kind of a combination 
which was to be cemented by vows : 

"In festo O Sapientia, Dec. 16. 
"My dear Wadhams: I would have written 
to you long ago, but I was determined you should 
keep your word and write first, as in duty bound. 
I am delighted to hear how well you are coming 
on ; things seem to be nearer what you would 
wish than you could have hoped a few T months 
ago. I am sorry you did not write a week earlier 
than you did, for then I would have had time to 
make this letter twice as long as it will be now. 
However, if you answer it soon, I will write a 
longer one soon after the holidays. I spend next 
week in town, and am full of business in the 
mean while. I have had two letters from Eng- 
land, within the month ; one from Dalgairns, the 
other from Oakeley. Both are very kind and in- 
teresting. Oakeley cannot immediately go on 
with St. Bernard ; his intimate friend and coad- 
jutor, who was to have assisted him, has crossed 

and is gone. O says he has no intention of 

following him at present. He thinks the step 
(which was taken without consulting friends) 
was owing to morbid excitement of mind and 
peculiar circumstances. He means as soon as he 



News from Oxford. 55 

can to resume his labors on St. Bernard. Dal- 
gairns is full of the state of parties consequent 
on the recent election of V. Chancellor, and, like 
Oakeley, writes in bad spirits. The breach is 
irreparable between the thorough -paced ones and 
the Hook party, and this seems to discourage 
them. Ward's book they speak of in the high- 
est terms. Of course an attempt is being made 
by some in authority to get hold of him and pun- 
ish him, but this is not likely to succeed. He is 
coming out in a new edition in two volumes, en- 
larged from the first. Of the lives of the saints, 
St. Augustine is by Oakeley; Sts. Wolstan and 
William, by Mr. Church (a fellow of Oriel and 
follower of Mr. Newman, author of the articles on 
St. Anselm in the B. Critic) ; Sts. Paulinus, Bega, 
etc., constituting No. VI., is by F. W. Faber, the 
poet. I am rejoiced to see him so true a man; 
he talks tiarder than any one of them, and I think 
from several things that he has recovered very 
much from his self-conceit, which used so to spoil 
his writings. Dalgairns leads me to infer that 
he himself is the author of St. Stephen and St. 
Gilbert, being Nos. I. and VII. ; finally some of 
the shorter of the Legends of the Hermit Saints are 
by Newman. Have you all these? I see No. VIII. 
announced, and volume vi. of the Plain Sermons. 
"You ask very kindly about my own affairs. 
I know little about them externally. That Fish- 
kill business is all nonsense; they would not 
think of me. To tell the truth, I am very care- 



5 6 Reminiscences, 1841-1844. 

less about taking orders. I believe a furious 
storm is gathering, and will very soon drive us 
to Rome. The only possible alternative is the 
breaking up of our communion between different 
dioceses. Whether that could save us, consider- 
ing the reckless character of the Wh.ittirs.g- hamites 
— or, as I am disposed henceforth to call them, the 
'Hamites/ as if from the father of Canaan the 
accursed — whether such a division can save us, 
is, I say, very doubtful. I think our present 
tack is a deep love for our church— of course for 
her poor remnant of Catholicism, which remnant 
we as dutiful sons will strive to preserve and in- 
crease. I think we may well express ourselves 
strongly both in the way of affection for her 
and of deep consciousness that she has forfeited 
almost everything, and may very shortly forfeit 
the rest, which we are striving to prevent. I 
think, however, that it is most likely when we 
openly avow belief in the unity of the church as 
consisting in communion with St. Peter's chair, 
and in communion of saints as implying, or rather 
including, invocation of them, that they will stop 
their ears and hurl us out. I shall have a good 
deal to say to you when I return from the city. 
I am going to urge Seabury, furiously, to ad- 
vance his colors, and take a bold stand in the 
Churchman. I wrote him a week ago a letter that 
I dare say has frightened him a little, and I mean 
to frighten him still more. If we stay, as we 
want to, in our church, we stay to work and to 



Mc Master Prospecting, 57 

talk, not to be quiet. And this must and shall 
be allowed us; and so I told him. (By the way, 
he spoke very highly of you a few weeks ago 
when I was in town, and expressed regret that 
he never could get hold of you.) I must thank 
you for offering me a retreat at St. Mary's. 
There is nothing to keep me from joining you 
in the spring, so far as I am concerned ; but it 
will not do to make schemes. I feel that hitherto 
I have done nothing to fit myself for what may 
be in store for us. My wretched want of hu- 
mility has spoiled me in everything, and now, 
if now indeed, gives me everything to do yet. 
If I am ordained in the spring, which may be, 
cannot you come down? I speak only on con- 
jecture, but there are several who will be likely 
to urge it. I have gone every length with Mr. 
Wheaton, and he goes with us heartily. Oh, if 
his wife was only in a convent i He is very re- 
ligious and earnest, I assure you, in spite of his 
wife. When have you heard from Shepherd? 
Wadhams, I want to see a common rule adopted 
by us, whether living together or not, to be ob- 
served strictly. It must be general, but include 
regular canonical hours, celibacy by vow, and 
obedience to the superior of the 'order,' if we 
may so call it. Let it not surprise you when I 
say I am free to take these vows. Don't say so 
to any one. I cannot explain farther. To these, 
of course, confession must be added — oh! how I 
long to see it established with us, for my own 



58 Reminiscences, 1 841-1844. 

sake. Piatt wrote me lately from Rochester, 
and expressed a great wish to see you. He finds 
it hard work with those nasty High-Churchmen. 
I wish he was in this diocese. So say I of every 
one that is right-minded : Concentrate first, and 
go forth thence. 

" Thank you for Spooner s Sermon; there are 
good things in it, but he is crochety and out of 
joint. He deals harder with others than with 
himself, I fancy, or he would be more religious 
in his tone. Have you seen Questions for Self- 
Examination, republished in Albany, under au- 
spices of Williams & Potter, of Albany? 

" I am glad Walworth is contented. Remem- 
ber me kindly to him. I tried to see him when 
in town, but could not find him. Write me very 
soon, and a long letter. The details of your 
doings interested me much. Believe me ever 
most sincerely, Yours, etc., 

"B. B. J. McMaster." 

The Oxford Movement, so called, was now fast 
coming to a crisis, both in England and in Amer- 
ica. In June, 1844, William George Ward, of 
Balliol College, Oxford, published his celebrated 
Ideal of a Christian Church. This ideal was so 
plainly contrary to the actual Anglican Church, 
so radically different, in truth, that it produced 
a general horror in the minds of average church- 
men, and no small dismay in the ranks even of 
Tractarians. To borrow a simile of Dr. New- 



Trouble at Oxford and Chelsea. 59 

man, the result was like that produced by " Sind- 
bad the Sailor " and his companions when, they 
kindled a cooking-fire on the back of a barren 
little island. The experiment changed the island 
into a whale. The sluggish animal first shivered, 
then threw his tail high up in the air and relieved 
himself speedily both of the coals and the cooks. 
In Oxford a prosecution was soon initiated to 
condemn Ward and deprive him of his degrees. 
Affairs at the Twentieth Street seminary drew 
on toward a crisis at the same time. The Amer- 
ican whale also woke up and prepared to dive, 
and the first that fell into the water were certain 
Catholicizing seminarians, who happened to be 
where the coals were hottest. The hard-fisted 
old Knickerbocker bishop, who was president of 
the seminary and had hitherto been their pro- 
tector, had come into disgrace and was unable to 
give any efficient help. The High-Church bish- 
ops of the " Catholic " kind were made feeble 
through fear, and those of the Low-Church grew 
correspondingly bold and clamorous. What fol- 
lowed at the seminary is sufficiently developed 
in a letter from McVickar to Wadhams, dated at 
the seminary, December 31st, 1844. The first 
few lines of the letter we omit. They refer to 
architectural plans for the new "St. Mary's" at 
Wadhams Mills. 

"... An affair in which Walworth is inter- 
ested, and of which, if report says true, he has 



60 Re7iiiniscences, 1 841-1844. 

already heard of from his bishop, is keeping the 
seminary in hot water/' (This was a mistake so 
far as to any communication between Bishop 
De Lancey and myself.) "The history is this. 
About two weeks ago Mr. Ogilby sent for Wat- 
son (m. class) and told him that he had been in- 
formed that there was an organized party in and 
out of the seminary, including clergy, for Ro- 
manizing the church. Donnelly, Taylor, Watson, 
Piatt, Walworth, and myself belonged to it. He 
questioned Watson on his views, and W ac- 
knowledged that he used prayers to the saints and 
considered the Church of England schismatical. 
As soon as we heard it, we (Donnelly, Taylor, 

and myself) called on Mr. O and asked him 

what he had heard against us and who had in- 
formed him. He refused to answer, and asked us 
to answer some of his questions, which we refused 
to do, and he reported us all to our bishops. 

D and I had seen Bishop O , who says he 

is satisfied ; but the faculty have taken it up, and 
I am to appear before them on the 7th proximo 
on the charge of recommending Romish books, 
and also on the charge of believing in the papal 
supremacy. The information comes through 

P , whom I think Walworth knew, and who 

has used the basest deception to get information. 
Whatever happens it will make no difference in 
my remaining in the P. E. Church. We call 
ourselves Catholic. I may, therefore, hold all 
Catholic truths, which I am determined to do. 



Trouble at Oxford and Chelsea. 6 1 

" Whicher is here, and gives out that he is sent 
for by his bishop. I think that Piatt may be 
down also. 

" A letter has lately appeared by Mr. Oakeley 
giving his reasons to a Roman Catholic for re- 
maining in the Church of England. It is said 
to be a very thorough thing. The reports of 
Mr. Newman's having gone to the Church of 
Rome are all false. Mr. Forbes is getting on 
astonishingly well, and Dr. Seabury's sermons 
are noble in doctrine and power ; but Mr. Whea- 
ton of Po'keepsie, under Mr. McMaster's guid- 
ance, is becoming the staunchest priest in the 
church. So we have no reason to despair, and 
if we did not meet with trouble we should want 
one mark of holding the true faith. Remember 
me kindly to Walworth, etc." 



Cbapter III. 

a Storm at ©jtorD Ecboe& at tbe Cbelsea Seminary— 
SinDbaD's TObaie 3f lope.— Zbc Cloister (5oe6 TUnDer*— 
3Ftien&6 Gross Qvcv to TRome. 

1845. 
|N the 13th of February, 1845, a convoca- 
tion of the University of Oxford con- 
demned William George Ward's Ideal of 
a Christian Chnrcli, as containing passages incon- 
sistent with the Thirty-nine Articles, and de- 
prived him of his degrees in the university. Mr. 
Ward was not only a clergyman in priest's orders, 
but a fellow of Balliol College and had been pro- 
fessor of mathematics at that college. Of course, 
this blow, aggressive and decisive as it was, fell 
not only upon him, but upon a large number of 
others who stood in the same position with him. 
When the convocation broke up and passed out 
into the street, Mr. Ward was cheered by the 
undergraduates, and the vice-chancellor was sa- 
luted with hisses and snowballs from the same 
quarter. To borrow a most truthful and forcible 
expression already applied to these proceedings, 
"the university was ostracising half its most 
promising sons." 

62 



A Storm at Oxford. 63 

It must, however, be acknowledged that the 
Anglican Church, notwithstanding her enormous 
latitude of doctrine, was too thoroughly Protes- 
tant in spirit to hold such men as Ward. And 
on the other hand, a large number of Puseyites 
were too much puffed up with the fancy of being 
Catholic for him to sympathize any longer with 
them. 

" A Catholic priest at Old Hall College was put 
somewhat out of countenance when, in answer 
to his rather sneering remark, 'I suppose you 
call yourself a Catholic, Mr. Ward,' he received 
the reply, 'Oh dear no! You are a Catholic, I 
am a Puseyite.' He did not believe himself to 
be a priest, or to have the power of forgiving 
sins. . . . And when once a friend said to him, 
'Bear in mind that you are, on our principles, 
really a priest of God,' Ward broke off the dis- 
course by saying, 'If that is the case, the whole 
thing is infernal humbug.' " 

The University of Oxford is a far more ancient 
and venerable institution than the Church of 
England, and far more vigorous w T ith real Eng- 
lish life. It has more of a mind of its own, it 
has more liberty to speak, and its word goes 
farther among English churchmen. This it is 
that made Ward's condemnation so crushing a 
blow to all would-be Catholics. It was still pos- 
sible for men belonging to the "movement" to 
remain in the university and in the church on 
condition of keeping their mouths shut, but these 



64 Remi?iiscences, 1845. 

men said in their hearts, to use the words of 
McMaster's letter already quoted, " If we stay, 
as we want to, in our church, we stay to work 
and to talk, not to be quiet." By keeping this 
in mind the reader will easily understand that 
by the above act of convocation the Oxford move- 
ment had practically come to a collapse. What 
was true of the Church of England was also true 
of her affectionate little daughter on this side of 
the water. Ward 'retired from Balliol and from 
Oxford, Oakeley resigned his charge at Margaret 
Chapel, London, in the following summer, and 
Newman did not hesitate to intimate to his friends 
that he was no longer at peace in the church of 
his birth. In this country also a crisis had come. 
Several seminarians were, upon complaint, sub- 
jected to an informal trial at the Twentieth Street 
seminary. 

What interested Wadhams in a very special 
manner was that Henry McVickar, a prospective 
member of our little monastery, feeling crowded 
out by the result, withdrew to rooms at Columbia 
College. The Protestant Episcopal Church was 
no longer a home for many earnest souls. The 
test contained in McVickar's letter of November 
6th, 1844, already given, for "reforming a bad 
system, " had been applied and failed. Her frame- 
work would not bear that load " of all possible 
good," which they had attempted to put upon it. 
Enthusiastic young men might still be allowed 
to play Catholic, but they must not presume to 



Storm Echoed at Chelsea. 65 

mean anything by it. McVickar, though, much 
discouraged, still seemed to hope something from 
the monastic idea, though he gradually grew 
more non-committal until finally he withdrew. 
His next letter to the prior of St. Mary's, dated 
at Columbia College, February 23d, 1845, reads as 
follows : 

"My dear Wadhams: I received your wel- 
come letter a few days back and have sent a 
bundle as directed. You cannot tell how I re- 
gret not being able to send you Ward's book, 
but when Adams left here I promised that a copy 
should be sent to Nashotah, and if I could not 
get any one else to send it I would send my own, 
which I soon expect to have an opportunity of 
doing. I shall, however, try and get you a sight 
of the book before long. As to its being pub- 
lished I can only say I hope for it. Mr. Johnson 
of Brooklyn offers, I understand, to take twenty- 
five copies if the Appletons will put out an edi- 
tion. 

" Speaking of Mr. J , some of the students 

whom I have seen tell me that about fifteen of 
them were over there yesterday (Saturday) to 
chant the Psalter for him and are to go again on 
Easter eve. 

"In a letter to Walworth I have mentioned 

some of the reasons that led me to take the step 

I took at the seminary. At the time I felt very 

much the need of advice, but those upon whose 

5 



66 Reminiscences, 1845. 

judgment I would have placed the most confi- 
dence were absent; and what I did had to be 
done quickly and some protest seemed necessary. 
And, indeed, I was more restricted by the action 
which was taken than you seem to suppose ; per- 
haps I made too great concessions — I allowed that 
I was not the judge of what was injurious to the 
seminary, but I conceded that the faculty were, 
and that if they wguld point out how they thought 
I had injured it I would avoid it for the future. 
This they did in a general way, but so as to re- 
strict me more than I thought right ; but if I had 
remained at the seminary I should have sub- 
mitted to it and thought it my duty to do so. 
But I was free to leave the institution, and I 
did so. 

" . . . No. 8 of the Lives of the Saints is one 
of the most thorough of the series. McMaster 
supposes it to be Mr. Newman, and he is a good 
judge of style. 

" McMaster has not been very well this winter. 
When last I heard from him he was cogitating a 
successor for Bishop O . . . . 

"I have had a long letter from Johnson, who 
has advanced astonishingly — developed, perhaps 
I had better say. I wish you or Walworth would 
write to him, and urge him to come into this 
diocese. I regard him as a most valuable man. 

" Mr. Kneeland is my room-mate at present, 
and is studying theology with an energy that 
would shame most students. He has just fin- 



Storm Echoed at Chelsea. 67 

ished Ward, and Moehler [on "Symbolism"], 
and is delighted with them. 

" I saw Mr. Carey the other evening. His 
accounts from his son Henry (Arthur Carey's 
brother), who is in Madeira, are far from en- 
couraging ; his heart appears very much affected. 
Give my best love to Walworth, and believe me, 
" Very truly and sincerely yours, 

"Henry McVickar." 

The letter that follows needs no introduction. 

"New York, Maundy Thursday, 1845. 

"My dear Wadhams: ... To begin with 
the question which concerns me most intimately, 
you ask: When and whether I will join you? 
To this I reply, it depends upon my obtaining 
orders. If I do, with the bishop's permission, I 
will join you as deacon immediately afterwards. 
To join you as a layman is a question I have 
never considered. My present judgment is 
against it. Now, I wish to be very explicit in 
this matter with you. 

" I am extremely doubtful whether I can ob- 
tain orders without exciting new commotions and 
troubles ; and if I think so when the time comes 
/ shall not apply for them. Yon must titer ef ore act 
without counting upon or regarding me in this matter. 

"My three years' candidateship (till the ex- 
piration of which the bishop tells me I cannot be 
ordained) does not expire till some time toward 
the end of November next. 



68 Reminiscences, 1845. 

" Under these circumstances I do not think it 
right that I should control in the least your move- 
ments. In order, therefore, to render your action 
as free as possible and that you may act for the 
best, I accept tlie release you have given me so far as 
to avoid the trust under your will, and desire you to 
revoke it, or destroy the will as soon as convenient. 
This does not in the slightest interfere in the 
establishment of th^' house, if you wish to do so, 
and at the same time simplifies matters and ren- 
ders you freer to choose the best course. 

" With this statement as to myself I must leave 
you and Walworth to decide the other questions, 
and upon your own course. I am glad Walworth 
has been engaged in so useful a work as prepar- 
ing a book of devotions, and hereby offer my 
subscription for half a dozen copies at the least, 
or as many more as he sets me down for. The 
warmest inquiries are made after him by the 
students that I meet at the Annunciation.* 

" The news from England is important. Ward 
is deprived of his degree and fellowship. . . . 

Remember me affectionately to W , and if 

he is harassed with doubts, believe me there are 
many who sympathize with him. With a deep 
interest in all that concerns you, I remain, ever 
yours faithfully, 

"Henry McVickar." 

* Dr. Seabury's old church, where Carey had been as- 
sistant, situated at the corner of Prince and Thompson 
Streets.— C. A. W. 



Watching with the Sick. 69 

It ought to be easy for the reader to under- 
stand that this period was to Wadhams one of 
great mental anxiety and sometimes anguish of 
heart. This, however, did not keep the young 
deacon from faithful and hard labor in the field 
of his mission. I was eye-witness only to a small 
part of this, as I remained in Wadhams Mills 
during his frequent absences, officiating as lay- 
reader and catechist there on Sundays when he 
held service at Ticonderoga and Port Henry. I 
can say little, therefore, of his work and way of 
working, except what I saw him do at Wadhams 
Mills. I do not think any of his people at the 
Mills were sick that winter. He had opportuni- 
ties, however, to show kindness to sick people 
not of his fold. I left him once at the*village inn 
to keep night watch over a man suddenly taken 
ill, under circumstances which caused great alarm. 
I left him stretched out on three chairs beside 
the sick-bed. His weight rested chiefly upon a 
central chair ; his feet reposed upon another, and 
his head was supported on a third, which was 
tilted up on two legs. He was accustomed to this 
way of couching and always said he never slept 
better than in that fashion. I heard the sick 
man whisper to a friend who happened in, " Isn't 
he a good fellow! " A young man whose apart- 
ments were right over the village store was taken 
with the small-pox. The villagers were filled 
with alarm and would none of them come near 
him. Even the village doctor came only once, 



70 Remi?iiscences, 1S45. 

and then covered from neck to foot with a long 
bag, something like a night-gown, made expressly 
for the purpose. The young man's family, only 
four miles distant, kept away from him, except 
his step-mother, who came to carry him home as 
soon as he was well enough to be moved. The 
village store beneath him was closed up, and a 
farmer who lived across the street was so fright- 
ened that I saw him once shaking his fist at the 
house when he saw the door opened opposite to 
him. Wadhams, however, was in and out fre- 
quently, and so was his good mother, who brought 
food for the patient. She took no precaution for 
herself, only she was careful to send two grand- 
children home. It was decided by the villagers 
that for the public safety the young man should 
be removed to a deserted and dilapidated hut in 
the neighborhood; but, it being the dead of win- 
ter, neither Wadhams nor his mother would listen 
to this ; and, since the authorities could find no 
one willing to undertake the job of removal, the 
project was abandoned. 

Wadhams preached every Sunday afternoon, 
alternating between Ticonderoga, Port Henry, 
and. Wadhams Mills. The reader may be inter- 
ested to know what his sermons were like at this 
time and how he delivered them. I recall one 
occasion when he preached in the school-house 
at Ticonderoga. He inveighed against lazy pos- 
tures in devotion, and spoke of men who would 
not kneel for fear of getting dust on their knees, 



Lent Sermons. 71 

etc. The only person of this kind present was 
the leading gentleman of his congregation, who 
sat directly under the preacher's desk, and saw 
the commanding form of our friend looking down 
upon him, not more than six feet distant, and 
emphasizing him most earnestly with his eyes. 
This gentleman's respect for the young apostle 
was, nevertheless, too great to allow him to take 
offence. We both took supper with him that 
evening, and the conversation was as cordial on 
all sides as if nothing but abstract truth had been 
uttered in the morning sermon. 

It is well to remark here that Wadhams took 
no pride in his own utterances. In the com- 
mencement he wrote out all his sermons, and 
that carefully. Still he was ready to read from 
printed books any sermon that pleased him, or 
anything that would serve his purpose when 
short of matter. In one same day at Ticonderoga 
he used manuscript sermons of mine and McMas- 
ter's, one in the morning and one in the after- 
noon. They were exercise sermons which we 
had written in New York and preached before 
the class. Both of us were in the audience, and 
we were astonished and delighted to see how 
much he made of them with his strong emphasis 
and earnest manner. He had read the sermons 
carefully beforehand, and prepared himself well 
to do justice to them. He was less cautious on 
another occasion at Wadhams Mills, and felt 
himself caught in a trap. His repertoire of ser- 



7 2 Reminiscences, 1845. 

mons was exhausted and hard woriv during the 
week had prevented him from making any prep- 
aration. "Walworth," said he, "I want one of 
your seminary sermons ; I'm short." 

"All right," I said; "I'll lend you one; but I 
never preached it at the seminary, and you may 
not like it." 

"I've no time to read it," said he, "and I'll 
take it on trust." 

The sermon was on the " Infallibility of the 
Church." It was rather a heavy gun, and w r ould 
have excited much astonishment if used in Twen- 
tieth Street before the professor in class. I 
watched my friend as he delivered it, and not 
without some fear of the consequences. The 
audience showed no signs of agitation or dissatis- 
faction. Wadhams himself, however, grew red 
in the face as he proceeded, and I noticed that 
whenever he came to some terrible words about 
"the Rock of Peter," which often occurred, he 
braced himself up, and pounded the desk w T ith 
unusual energy. After the morning service was 
over, and the Sunday-school exercises also — for 
which all the audience remained — I conducted 
his mother, widow Wadhams, to her house, where 
our rooms were, and waited with some apprehen- 
sion for my friend's return. When he entered 
the room he glared at me for a little while, and 
then said, with a remarkable mildness : " I tell 
you what, my very dear Christian friend, if I had 
known what was in that sermon I wouldn't have 



Grounding on Peter s Rock. 73 

preached it." "Well," I said, "if you are satis- 
fied, I am sure the congregation is. Nobody 
here will take any exception to anything you 
preach." 

In this, however, I was mistaken. In the 
evening we visited a cousin of his, an Episcopa- 
lian, whose husband, however, was a Baptist. 
He said to me : " I liked the sermon this morning 
very much, but there was one thing in it which 
I couldn't exactly take in. I don't see how you 
Episcopalians can prove the infallibility of the 
Pope." The sermon, of course, was not intended 
to carry the point of infallibility so far. Never- 
theless, I let this odd mistake pass, not being 
altogether unpleased with it. 

"You cannot? " said I, "why the thing is not 
so very difficult! Just look at the Scriptures," 
and I proceeded to present some arguments 
drawn from Scripture and from reason, argu- 
ments which at this very time were leading me 
rapidly to the Catholic faith. The preacher of 
the morning said nothing, but looked amazed. 

The objector still objected, but the good lady, 
his wife, was disposed to stand firmly by any 
doctrine that seemed to come from the pulpit or 
the general seminary. 

" Hush ! " said she to her husband, " don't talk 
so much; you only show your ignorance." It is 
hard to say precisely how much of the confiding 
simplicity of Wadhams' flock was owing to any- 
thing else than his own magnetic sincerity. 



74 Reminiscences, 1845. 

Following these events and the communica- 
tions from McVickar already given, there came 
a correspondence between him and myself which 
led to a distinct abandonment by him of our 
monastic scheme, a consequent termination of 
my residence with Wadhams, and to a termina- 
tion, also, of my connection with the Protestant 
Episcopal Church. In truth, my state of mind 
was very much like that of Ward and Oakeley in 
England. 

I had little confidence in the validity of Angli- 
can orders. I felt myself to be in a state of 
schism, separated from the ancient and true 
Church of Christ. Moreover, whatever tolera- 
tion was given by Anglicanism to Catholic ideas, 
rank heresy received far more efficient toleration ; 
and I saw little hope of reviving a breathless 
corpse by our weak efforts to blow a little wind 
into its nostrils. I began to realize that, what- 
ever of supernatural life there was in individual 
Anglicans, they did not derive it from Anglican- 
ism. The condition of Wadhams' mind was very 
similar to my own. Even the fragmentary cor- 
respondence of that time now in my possession 
contains warnings from his friends which, if my 
remembrance serves, were never communicated 
to me. I think he was afraid of adding to my 
uneasiness, and his own soul was not in a mood 
that made him capable of reassuring friends. At 
one time, when there was some reason to appre- 
hend serious danger from sickness, I said to him : 



The Cloister Goes Under. 75 

" My dear old fellow, if this thing should turn 
out badly I shall want better help than you can 
give me." " Never fear," he answered ; " in that 
case you shall have a priest, and it shall be some 
one that is a priest for certain." 

The correspondence between McVickar and 
myself above referred to contained expressions 
on my part of distrust in Episcopalianism and 
longing aspirations after unity with Rome which 
alarmed my friend in New York. These expres- 
sions drew from him declarations of a determina- 
tion to abide in the church where he was at all 
hazards, and of an inability to co-operate prac- 
tically with any whose hearts were already in 
another fold. The crisis had come. Sindbad's 
island whale was unmistakably in motion. She 
would not endure any more hot coals. The pre- 
sumptuous sailors who had been dancing on her 
back were now obliged to look out for their own 
safety. It had become necessary either to go 
under with the whale or to strike out for a safer 
refuge. To particularize : St. Mary's Monastery 
in the North Woods had turned out to be a vision. 
That vision had vanished, and in its place was 
left nothing but a roofless log house on the Wad- 
hams farm. The following note will now speak 
for itself : 

"Your Study, May 5th, 1845. 

" Dear Wad hams : In a few minutes I shall 
be gone — and oh, as I lean my breast against 
your stand, how wildly something beats within. 



76 Reminiscences, 1843. 

It seems as if I were about to separate from every- 
thing I love, and my poor heart, faithless and 
unconscientious, wants to be left behind among 
the Protestants. I am not manly enough to make 
a stout Catholic ; but it is a great privilege to be 
a weak one. Well, do not you forget me. In- 
deed you cannot — you have been such a good, 
kind, elder brother to me, you would not be able 
if you tried to forget me. When hereafter you 
speak of me, speak freely of me for truth's sake, 
with all my faults ; but when you think of me 
alone, try to forget all that is bad for love's sake, 
and although your imagination should in this 
way create a different person, no matter, so you 
call it by my name. We have stormy times be- 
fore us, dear W ; but may God grant us the 

privilege to ride the storm together. Farewell 
until we meet again, and when and zvhere shall 

that, be ? 

" ' Lead Thou us on!' 

"C. W." 

In close connection with the above note is the 
copy of a letter from Wadhams to McVickar. 
The original was carried to New York City by 
McMaster. He had come up to visit us at Ticon- 
deroga, and we had arranged together, McMaster 
and I, to enter the Catholic Church, and for this 
purpose to apply to the Redemptorist Fathers at 
their house in Third Street, New York. I went 
on first, leaving him to follow me after finishing 
his visit at Ticonderoga. 



Friends Cross Over to Rome. 77 

It is a noticeable fact that Wadhams should 
have made and preserved a copy of this one letter 
among so many which he wrote. No doubt he 
felt that it marked the turn of a great tide in his 
life. The letter reads as follows: 

"Church of the Cross, Ticonderoga, 

"Tuesday in Whitsun Week, 1845. 

"My dear McVickar: Conscious of great ne- 
glect to you, I now sit down after again return- 
ing to this place to answer your last kind letter. 

" I cannot well describe to you the feelings that 
Walworth's note — written after I left him and 
left upon my table — has excited. Of him, his 
worth and advantage to me for the past months 
I need not speak to you who know him better 
than I and consequently know what they must 
have been. Every one regrets that he has left 
these mountains, particularly Judge and Mrs. 

B , and the Hammonds at the Falls. Poor 

fellow! he suffered very much from his eyes 
during the winter and spring, and, after it was 
finally settled that we were not to have your 
company up here, became discontented. What 
step he has now taken you, doubtless, know bet- 
ter than I do. Though sorry that he has left me 
alone among these mountains, I am not sorry that 
I have a friend among the Roman Catholics. On 
the contrary, I am glad, for there is no knowing 
how soon we all may be obliged to leave our 
present communion — 'that dispensation of God 



78 Reminiscences, 1845. 

which has been to all of us so great a blessing ' 
— and go to the church which is Catholic. I say 
this, not expecting to abuse the kindness which 
he and other friends may extend to me there, 
but to express my thankfulness to them for their 
manliness and straightforwardness. We are cer- 
tainly under obligations to them for opening and 
showing the way for those Americans that may 
follow. It seems to be a conceded point now 
among those who are ■ leading the way in our 
church that the Church of Rome has all the wis- 
dom, and it must follow that, while some are 
striving to gain that wisdom, some will, as a 
matter of course, remain unquiet until they can 
gain the religious graces which she alone bestows 
with that wisdom. Walworth is one of these, 
and, partly of his own accord and partly from 
necessity, he crosses. There are others who will 
have more difficulty in leaving friends and un- 
doing a work which they had trusted was good. 

" I am under many obligations to you for 
Oakeley's letter and the Lives of the Saints, which 
I return by McMaster. 

" Please write to me and inform me how and 
when I shall send you the Breviary and the Lives 
of the Saints (Butler's) and also what I shall do 
with the tools. I have lost the bill of the latter, 
but if you wish to have them sold please say (if 
you recollect) what they cost. 

" Will it not be your pleasure to come and see 
me this summer? I shall be here and at Wad- 



Letters from Walworth. 79 

hams Mills alternately. But will manage to have 
my time entirely at your disposal if I can receive 
so great a pleasure as your company. Please 
write to me soon, addressing me at this place. 
" Very sincerely your friend, 

"E. P. Wadhams. 
"Monday, May 19th. 
" P. S. Agreeably to your request, I have de- 
stroyed my will this morning ; and must beg of 
you to be set free of the trust committed to me 
in your own. Ever yours, 

"E. P. Wadhams." 

The next letter which I give the reader is one 
from myself to Wadhams, detailing after some 
sort the circumstances which attended my recep- 
tion into that great motherly bosom which I had 
sought for so earnestly, but had been so timid to 
recognize. The mail which bore it to Ticonder- 
oga must have passed McMaster as he brought 
down to New York the letter just given above. 

"In Festo Corporis Christi, May, 1845. 
" Dear Wadhams : You have not, of course, 
forgotten your poor crazy friend, who used to 
get so wild when you left him alone, and talked 
of going over, Well, he has gone over now, and 
his soul is as quiet and happy as if it had a right 
to be happy instead of mourning in sackcloth and 
ashes. For fear I should not have room after- 
wards, I will begin by telling you statistically and 
methodically what I have done. I arrived here 



80 Reminisce?ices, 1845. 

(New York) in due time on Wednesday morning, 
and the same day made my way to Father Rum- 
pier. I found him all that I wished — a wise, 
kind, earnest, spiritually-minded man, and put 
myself immediately into his hands. Last Friday 
(May 1 6th) I made my profession — the form you 
have probably seen in the Roman Ritual. Three 
or four witnesses only were present, as I wished 
the matter to be secret, for tranquillity's sake, 
until I had received the sacraments. The creed 
of Pius IV. sounded most musically in my ears, 
and I took pleasure in repeating it very slowly 
and distinctly. I was then freed from the curse 
and excommunication which you remember used 
so to trouble us. On Thursday, the day before, I 
had made my confession, and on Saturday came 
again to the confessional and was absolved, and 
on Sunday morning communicated, after which 
I had no longer any motive to make the thing a 
secret. It is well known at the seminary, and, 
of course, therefore, in other quarters; but, as I 
have kept very much at home, I do not know 
what is said about it. None of those to whom I 
have spoken before my profession used the least 
expostulation, but seemed to regard it as a thing 
of course, and an honest step. McVickar is si- 
lent and reserved in the extreme, but very kind. 
I do not know what to infer from this, but am 
unwilling to trouble him. I have made applica- 
tion through Father Rumpler to be admitted as 
novice at Baltimore, and shall probably hear next 



Letters from Walworth. 8 1 

week. I have as yet had no intercommunica- 
tion with my immediate relatives in this matter. 
This, my severest trial, will come on next week. 
And now I have told you all that relates to my- 
self externally. My inward joy and satisfaction 
at being in the very church of God and com- 
munion of the saints, I cannot expi^ss. Should 
Judge B express any interest in my move- 
ments, make no secret with him. I feel much 
attached to him, not only on account of his friend- 
liness to me, but from strong personal esteem. 

Remember me gratefully to Mrs. B , also to 

Clarence, and the other children. Alas! dear 
Wadhams, what shall I say to you, of your kind- 
ness, gentleness, and thousand favors to me? I 
will just say nothing, for I will not have my feel- 
ings belied by an attempt to convey them by 
letter. 

" Well, what have you and Mac been doing in 
Essex County? Has he been raising any com- 
motion in your extensive diocese ? If he is with 
you still, give my warm love to him, although 
that is not very riecessary, as I shall most proba- 
bly be here when he comes down, and can do it 
for myself. I earnestly hope he will be cautious 
in the extreme in his method of abjuring his 
Protestant connections, for his own sake and that 
of others, and especially of the great cause. I 
do not mean he ought to do it precisely in the 
same still way as I — for, of course, every one 
must in some sort act according to his own natu- 

6 



82 Reminiscences, 1S45. 

ral method — but I mean he ought to say and do 
nothing without premeditation. So far as I have 
learned, Puseyism is still alive at the seminary, 
and wearing its own colors. It is scouring away 
at the outside of the cup and platter very bravely, 
as you remember it in our day there. The young 
Anglo-Cathcjics are acquiring the dyspepsia by 
fasting, buying up rosaries and crucifixes, which, 
nevertheless, they have no idea of using, and 
enjoy the satisfaction of knowing how frightened 
their mothers would be if they knew what their 
darlings were about. Perhaps this may seem to 
you somewhat cross, but indeed I am out of all 
conceit with Puseyism, whether ornamental, sen- 
timental, or antiquarian. Christ is one and un- 
divided, and must besought for in His undivided 
church, which He inhabits and inspires. God 
grant that you and I may soon meet upon that 
Rock which rests itself upon the Rock of Ages ! 

" Give my sincere love to your mother — I shall 
not soon forget her, I assure you. Also to Mrs. 
Hammond and the doctor, Mrs. and Miss Hay, 
Mrs. Atherton, and all others who have been 
kind to me. If you will answer me immediately, 
I shall get your letter before I leave New York. 
With all my heart, most sincerely yours forever, 

" Clarence Walworth. 

" Direct to me at New York, care of Edgar 
Jenkins, Esquire, 78 Eleventh Street. I visit 
often the brethren of St. Alphonse, but will tell 
you more hereafter. C. W." 



Letters from Walworth. 8$ 

The words in the above letter which speak of 
our anxiety at the thought of living in a state of 
excommunication may require some explanation. 
To furnish this I give the following reminiscence : 
In Sterne's Tristram Shandy is a story, given 
there as a joke, but often repeated among Protes- 
tants as a reality. It represents that on Fri- 
day in Holy Week the Pope publicly curses all 
heretics and infidels from the altar. The curse 
is given word for word, and is really something 
very horrible. It is, in fact, just so near the 
truth as this: that on that day, in all Catholic 
churches throughout the world, public prayers 
are offered for their conversion, in order that 
God may bless them. We did not either of us 
give much credit to such a tale, but still we were 
ignorant in regard to the real facts. Wadhams, 
I remember, had been more struck by the awful 
nature of anathemas from such a source than 
moved to a feeling of resentment. " It's a fool- 
ish story," said he. "It can't be true. But, I 
tell you what! — I don't w r ant that old man to 
curse me." 

The next letter connects itself sufficiently with 
the preceding one, and is here given without 
comment : 

"Saratoga Spa, June 26th, 1845. 

"Dear Wadhams : What can I write to you? 
I know you must be anxious to hear all the news ; 
but, in such an ocean of things I have to tell you, 
what can one do with a sheet of paper? I wish 



84 Reminiscences, 1843, 

I had you here hung up fast by a hook in some 
corner where you could not get away. I would 
talk to you from sunrise to bed-time, and you 
would need to say nothing but 'no! no! — did? — 
did? ' all the while. You will be surprised per- 
haps to find me writing from Saratoga. I came 
up about two weeks since, at mother's request 
and to try to comfort her, for she takes my con- 
version very much to heart, thinking me quite 
ruined by becoming a Catholic. I shall return 
in a very few days. By the by, the priest at the 
Springs is a Cistercian, or monk of St. Bernard 
(only think, a genuine live Cistercian), a very 
learned and, I think, a very good man. When 
Bishop Hughes travelled in Belgium this monk 
became much interested for this poor, infidelity- 
ridden country, and obtained leave to come and 
help the good cause on this side the water. You 
asked me in your last letter to describe to you the 
ways and customs of the brethren of St. Alphonse 
at New York. Indeed, I can tell you nothing 
beyond what M. has told you. 

" In the first place, there are scarcely enough 
of them to constitute a 'house,' being only three, 
and sometimes four, Fathers, and a few lay- 
brethren. Then, again, I go in and out without 
ceremony and the Father Superior is almost al- 
ways ready to see me, and as I am not put under 
rule, I know very little about their rule. McM., 
who stays with them all the while and is besides 
much more observing than I, is better able to 




£ 



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Letters from Walworth. 85 

inform you. But this will, of course, be en- 
tirely unnecessary, for you will soon come down to 
see us off — (of course, you have learned from 
Mac that we are to go to Europe — Belgium) — and 
make your profession before we go. Then you 
will see them all, and love them all as we do. 
We shall embark, probably, about the first of 
August with the Father Provincial from Belgium. 
"Oh! what shall I say to you of the joys of 
Catholic communion, the frequent and the real 
Sacraments, the privilege of daily Mass, and 
constant access to a confidential director? How 
miserable do all the unrealities of Puseyite specu- 
lation appear to one who is a Catholic in fact and 
not in dreams! I cannot bear to think of you 
all alone among those godless hills, an exile from 
the church into which you were baptized, and 
conducting unauthorized conventicles. Do not, 
I beg of you for Christ's sake, delay making your 
profession long. At least discontinue your meet- 
ings. Forgive me for speaking so, my dearest 
friend and kind benefactor, but I speak earnestly, 
believing that nothing is so expedient for us as 
to do God's will promptly. I have had a letter 
from Piatt, who 'thanks God ' for my sake and says 
he told the bishop he did not blame me for escap- 
ing from the torturing embrace of the Episcopal 
Church, but he cannot yet make up his mind to 
follow my example. I have urged him to come 
to New York and see me before I go, and told 
him he would meet you there. I presumed you 



86 Reminiscences, 1845. 

would not let us leave without seeing us, and 
Mac said he would urge you to come down. In- 
deed, you should make your profession and con- 
fession before Father Rumpler by all means, and 
you will gain much by coming and spending a 
while before, as we have already become familiar 
with the brethren and others. Although I have 
been in the habit of attending daily Mass, I doubt 
if I have forgotten you once in the presence of 
the Holy Victim. May the good Mother shield 
and bless you also, for I owe you very much, 
and, although I have always behaved more like 
a saucy companion, I assure you I look up to you 
as a father, not in years, but in care and kind- 
ness. 

" Do not forget to remember me to your mother, 
whom I remember daily in my prayers ; to Judge 

B , also Clarence, and others whom I am 

bound to love. My eyes are constantly improv- 
ing, yet I confess I feel the effects of this writ- 
ing. Tell Mrs. Hammond, although our farm 
of St. Mary's is abandoned, in which she took 
such a kind interest, I hope she may live to bring 
many a rose and lily to the altar of our dear 
Lady. In the hope of giving you soon a right 
good Catholic embrace, 

" Your affectionate friend and brother, 

"Clarence 'Alban Alphonse.' 

" The two names you see in my signature are 
the names by which I was confirmed. You will, 
of course, not use them as yet in directing letters. " 



Getting ready to Sail, 87 

The preceding two letters show that I had ap- 
plied for admission into the Redemptorist Order 
and that I had been accepted by the Very Rev. 
Father De Held, Provincial, then on a visit to 
America, accompanied by Father Bernard, who 
afterwards succeeded to his office here. Father 
De Held was head of the Province of Belgium, 
which then included Holland, England, and the 
United States. These letters show also that I 
had been destined to make my novitiate, not at 
Baltimore, but at. St. Trond, in Belgium. In 
the mean while McMaster had decided to join the 
same order, and so also had Isaac Hecker, now 
well known as first Superior of the Paulist Fathers 
of Fifty-ninth Street, New York City. The Pro- 
vincial had decided not to keep us in waiting 
until his own return to Europe, but to send us 
on beforehand, and at once. Father Hecker was 
not one of our seminary set and had never been 
an Episcopalian. McMaster and I met him for 
the first time at the Redemptorist Convent in 
Third Street, after our reception there. He was 
himself only a year-old Catholic. He had had 
nothing to do with Puseyism, and knew very 
little about it. His chief experience lay in the 
New England school of Transcendentalism, 

We little understood at first the full value that 
lay concealed under the long yellow locks that 
hung down over his broad shoulders and behind 
the bright eyes, which shone with an openness 
of enthusiasm which made us smile. On con- 



SS Reminiscences, 1S45. 

m 

eluding to join us he had just sufficient time to 
hurry off to Baltimore, where Father De Held 
then was, get accepted, and hurry back again 
before the ship left port. 

We considered it as contrary to holy poverty 
to go as first-class passengers ; Hecker's brothers, 
however, took care to have a special room built 
up for all three in the second cabin. While these 
hurried preparations were in progress, the fol- 
lowing letter was written : 

"New York City, July 25th, 1845. 
" Dear Wadhams : I intended to have given 
you earlier notice of the time of our departure, 
that you might have ample time to come and see 
us off at your leisure, but circumstances have 
turned up which oblige us to set off almost im- 
mediately, viz. : on Friday, the 1st of August. 
We shall cross in the London packet Prince Al- 
bert. I fear even now you will scarcely have 
time to come, there are so many chances of this 
letter being delayed. Most likely the packet will 
not get off until Saturday, the 2d, as I am told it 
is very common to delay a day or so, and sailors 
do not like to go out of port on a Friday. If I 
were going alone it would be great presumption 
to think you would come so far to see me, to 
whom you have no reason to be attached, except 
that you have shown me so much kindness and 
have given me so much reason to love you ; but 
you and McMaster are older friends, and you 



Come ! Come ! Come / 89 

will certainly wish to bid him 'farewell, and God- 
speed,' before he sails. We shall both almost 
hold our breaths in expectation of you. It makes 
me very sad to think over our last winter's life. 
McM. tells me I am much in the habit of saying 
unpleasant things in a thoughtless way to my 
friends, and I doubt not it is true, although I was 
not aware of it before. How often I may have 
wounded your feelings last winter in this man- 
ner, for I know I talked very much and very 
thoughtlessly; but you, who were always so pa- 
tient with me then, will not, I am sure, find it 
difficult to forget all these things now the time 
has gone by. As happy as I am to breathe the 
holy atmosphere of the Catholic Church, it is a 
bitter thing to leave my country — which I love 
all the more dearly for its pitiable religious des- 
titution — and so many kind friends whom I may 
never see again in life. But it is very selfish to 
speak of myself now. Come down, dear Wad- 
hams, at once, if you possibly ca?i, and let me see 
your face again. We will talk over in one day 
more than a thousand letters can contain. What 
an age of awful responsibility we live in! How 
irresistible the impression that God has vast de- 
signs for the good of His church upon the very 
eve of accomplishment ! Oh, what if He should 
call upon us at important and critical moments, 
and we should be found wanting! Let us cry 
out to God with groans and tears that we may be 
permitted to do and to suffer something in the 



90 Reminiscences, 1S4J. 

good and holy cause. What have we to do with 
the enjoyment of the world, or even of the most 
tender family relations, which is all the same 
thing, while Christ is pleading with us: 'What, 
can ye not watch with me one hour? ' It needs 
but a little time in the Roman Catholic Church 
to feel the depth and tenderness of her motherly 
love and care, and how blessed it is to labor in 
her cause, and to die in her arms. How can one 
'fight the good fight and finish the faith ' when 
joined to the abominations and covered with the 
trappings of heresy? 

" How can one hope for the benediction of 
Jesus upon himself or his doings while he will 
not listen to the voice, 'Come, and follow Me ' ? 

" Do come down at once and see us. Four 
years is a long time. Yesterday evening was the 
first we knew of the exact time of our departure, 
or I should have written before. God bless )^ou, 
speed my letter, and bring you hither in time. 
" Your faithful and grateful friend, 

"Clarence Walworth. 

" P. S. — I am living now all alone at my brother- 
in-law's, Mr. Jenkins, 78 Eleventh Street; but it 
would be more sure to come at once to McMas- 
ter's quarters in the house attached to the rear 
of the Catholic church on Third Street, between 
Avenues A and B." 

The above letter was mailed to Ticonderoga, 
wlience it was forwarded to Wadhams Mills. An 



Too Late! 91 

indorsement on the back of the sheet of paper 
upon which it is written shows that Wadhams 
did not receive it until the day we sailed. Did 
not this fact add an additional pang to the read- 
ing of it? In any case it shows why he did not 
come to see us off. 




Cbapter W. 

TSla&bams amfD tbe Encircling ©loom, — " Xea& Gbou 
flhe ©n*"— nostrums against IRomanism,— 1be En= 
ters tbe jfolD, 

I845-1846. 

^ADHAMS was now almost entirely alone. 
His loneliness was not like that of Rob- 
inson Crusoe on his solitary island. He 
had neighbors around him. They knew him 
and loved him well, and were as much disposed 
to be sociable as ever. He was in the midst of 
family friends, and to a man like him these family 
ties were very dear. He would never lack for 
any sympathy which they could give him. But 
the kind of sympathy which he needed most they 
had not to give. They were Protestants, and all 
of them perfectly satisfied with that religion to 
which they were accustomed. His own mind, 
on the contrary, was filled with religious doubts, 
practical and pressing doubts, which called for a 
quick solution. His heart, therefore, was strait- 
ened by a deep anguish, the cause of which they 
could not understand. The kind of sympathy 
which they could give him was not that which 
could bring relief. Those to whom he had been 
accustomed to open his heart, because they stood 

92 



Alone and in Gloom. 93 

on the same ground with him and could under- 
stand him, were now gone. The broad Atlan- 
tic lay between him and them. They were happy 
and he was not. They could have sympathized 
with him and shown their sympathy if they had 
remained with him, but they were gone. They 
had gone forward and so left him. Others had re- 
coiled backward and anchored their hearts behind 
him. He was thus quite alone, with none to share 
his anguish. Where was there a sympathizing 
heart to whom he could open his own? 

Of course, there is one Friend above all others, 
and by that Friend the just man is never for- 
saken. Sympathy with Him is never broken by 
any circumstances ; but only converts who have 
passed through the deep waters in which Wad- 
hams was now struggling know how clouds of 
darkness gather about the soul at times, and 
make it participate in some measure in that deso- 
lation which caused the Lord-Christ on His cross 
to cry out: " My God, my God, why hast Thou 
forsaken me?" I know of one who once, in a 
moment of desolation of this kind, which came 
in the middle of the night, could only find relief 
by rising from his bed, and on his bare knees 
protesting that, if God would only show him 
what to do, he would do it, let the cost be what 
it might. " Surely/' he said, " God cannot damn 
me while I say this, and mean it." Those who 
have passed through similar trials are best able to 
understand the deep meaning which lies in those 



94 Reminiscences, 1845-1846. 

words of Cardinal Newman, now so familiar to 
the public : 

" Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom 
Lead thou me on." 

Of course in these cases, when a young church- 
man is thought to be in danger of going over to 
Rome, friends are not wanting who are ready to 
offer sympathy, such as it is, and there are spir- 
itual doctors among them to prescribe infallible 
remedies. These remedies generally consist in 
urging the patient to do precisely what his con- 
science will not let him do. They succeed in 
curing only those whose consciences are not thor- 
oughly aroused, or who are weak in the knees. 
These various remedies are in substance reduci- 
ble to three or four — such, for instance, as : u Take 
advice," "Take orders," "Take a parish," "Take 
a wife." 

The first letter from Wadhams' correspondence 
which belongs to this period of spiritual desola- 
tion, covering something less than a year, is from 
a seminarian of his own class, the Rev. Edwin 
A. Nichols. It dates from " New York, June 2d, 
1845 ; " an d contains prescriptions for Wadhams' 
spiritual malady, beginning with the first in the 
order given above — namely, to take advice. After 
a brief introduction, he says: 

" I proceed in medias res, and perhaps you an- 
ticipate what is coming. We have not been 
much surprised to hear that McMaster has joined 



Alone and in Gloom. 95 

the Roman Catholic community in this country ; 
but Mr. Walworth's move has rather taken me 
aback, although I knew little of him personally. 
Of course we are ready to conclude that you and 
he consulted on this matter together before he 
left you, and I suppose you will not be surprised 
if your old friends ask, ' Will Wadhams go next? ' 
Now, will you allow me the privilege of an old 
friend, to take you (as it were) by the hand and 
say to you, 'Think before you leap ' ? I well rec- 
ollect one of McMaster's rash expressions, that 
he was going 'to take a leap in the dark/ How- 
ever, I believe you w r ould not do that. . . . We 
were ordained together: I should be sorry to 
think you have ever found any grounds for doubt- 
ing the validity of that ordination. If Carey, 
with all his great learning and devoted piety, 
believed those orders valid, it should counter- 
balance the weight of a good many Walw r orths, 
etc., the other way. Besides, it is no news to 
you that their validity has been admitted by many 
Roman Catholics themselves. Couraycr you have 
perhaps read, also Bishop England of Charles- 
ton, a prominent Roman Catholic divine lately 
deceased. However, it seems to me hardly pos- 
sible that your mind has been altered on this 
point, and that all the treasures of ancient and 
modern English theology, with which your com- 
monplace books are stored, have become to you 
so much dross. Here then, I hope, you will act 
differently from Walworth. He (I understand) 



g6 Reminiscences, 1 845-1 846. 

took the advice of none of our learned divines, 
but went 'on his own hook,' adopting the sec- 
tarian plan of neglecting reason and argument, 
and seeking from prayer alone that guidance which 
sober piety would hardly expect without faith- 
fully using all the means which Providence has 
placed within our reach. . . . Supposing, then, 
that you may have been troubled with doubts, 
would it not be your duty to consult with some 
of your respected" brethren and fathers in the 
church before allowing your mind to become 
changed, or even unsettled, with regard to any of 
the church's doctrines or principles? Doubtless 
you will agree with me on this point. Allow 
me, then, to hope that you will not suffer your 
mind to be imperceptibly warped and w r eaned 
from the church of your first love until you have 
had free and full intercourse with some of our 
clergy whom you know and respect as 'pillars in 
the church of Christ/ " 

The above citation of Courayer and Bishop 
England for the validity of English orders is 
rather unfortunate. Courayer was an apostate 
Catholic. He first embraced Jansenism and after- 
wards Anglicanism. It will be news to Catholics 
that Bishop England made any such admission. 
Moreover, the fact is well known that, when 
Anglicans in orders become Catholics, they have 
to be reordained. This practice rests upon a 
very early decision made at Rome in the case of 



Alone and in Gloom. 97 

a converted English clergyman. It was certain 
that Wadhams' own mind was so far unsettled 
in this matter at the time of receiving this letter 
that he had no confidence in his own ordination 
as deacon, and persistently refused to go on and 
take priest's orders. 

To urge either Wadhams or myself, or McMas- 
ter, McVickar, Whicher, Piatt, Donelly, or many 
others who might be named in the same cate- 
gory, to take advice from living "pillars" of the 
Episcopal Church was simply nonsense. What 
had we been doing during our seminary course 
but studying the very questions on which we 
were asked to seek light? The necessity of ordi- 
nation to constitute a priest, the apostolical suc- 
cession, and the validity of Anglican orders, the 
nature and characteristic notes of a true church, 
the essential doctrines and sacraments necessary 
to constitute and furnish the true Christian 
church — these were the very subjects which we 
had studied most anxiously, in class and out of 
class, with the aid of all the eminent "pillars" 
which Anglicanism could afford. The longer we 
studied, and the deeper our application to these 
questions, the more we felt the want of founda- 
tion beneath our feet ; and what other foundation 
could these wonderful "pillars" have, and why 
should we risk our salvation on their dictamina ? 
Among Anglican clergymen there were not a 
few that we knew well and respected much as 
gentlemen, as scholars, and as sincere Christians; 

7 



gS Reminiscences, 1 845-1 846. 

but how could they be " pillars of the church " 
to us, or add anything to our security? To take 
advice of such as they in our position did not 
mean humility, nor docility, nor that prudence 
which comes from heaven. It meant to dose our 
consciences with morphine, committing ourselves 
to men who were already committed. It could 
only mean, in our case, a cowardly surrender of 
conscience, with ^hypocritical expedient to back 
up the surrender. I am willing and glad to ad- 
mit that there are some rare men who know how 
to give advice with a regard solely to the state 
of an honest conscience which seeks it. Dr. 
Alonzo Potter, formerly bishop of Pennsylvania, 
was a man of this kind. An acquaintance and 
friend of mine was once a clergyman in his dio- 
cese and with a conscience struggling and hesi- 
tating like that of Wadhams. In a moment of 
feebleness he went to his bishop, opened his mind 
to him, and put himself under his direction, not 
doubting what that direction would be. He was 
astonished at the answer he got. "If," said the 
bishop, "the state of your mind is such as you 
represent, I am sorry for it; but there is only 
one course conscientiously open to you. It is to 
join the Roman Catholic Church. In any case," 
he added, " I can no longer consent to your offi- 
ciating in my diocese." Such advice is very rare, 
but such men as Dr. Potter are also very rare. 
It is scarcely necessary to say that the young 
cleric in question took this advice immediately. 



Hypnotics Prescribed. 99 

He has been for these many long years a moot 
talented and estimable priest in the Catholic 
Church. 

I had occasion once to give a very different 
advice. A Methodist minister, whose name I 
did not ask, once came to me at St. Mary's, rep- 
resenting that he had strong inclinations to be- 
come a Catholic and a priest. He had many 
questions to ask, but his questions were not of a 
character to do him much credit. His chief 
anxiety was to know what salary a priest could 
command, and what other means he had to make 
his way through the world. I told him that 
nothing less than a bishop could attend to a case 
like his. He asked if I would recommend him 
to apply to the bishop. I said : " You may go to 
him if you like, but if you should you will proba- 
bly find that I have been there before you, and 
advised him to have nothing to do with you." 
This was not a case of uneasy conscience, but of 
dilapidated finance. Any of the usual prescrip- 
tions administered to perplexed converts would 
have suited his case — orders, or a parish, or a 
wife, or any other profitable advice. 

Nichols was not satisfied in his letter with urg- 
ing Wadhams to take advice. He had another 
remedy in reserve, which was to keep him as 
busily employed as possible in the church where 
he found himself. This, with a glowing descrip- 
tion of his own work, and the happiness he 
found in it, occupies nearly all the rest of the 



ioo Reminiscences, 1 845-1 846. 

letter. Nichols was pastor of the "Emmanuel 
Church " in New York. His location and special 
relations with McVickar and others appear from 
the following passage : 

" Our members have increased in number, and 
apparently in zeal also. Our singing is very 
spirited and good. Sunday-school is somewhat 
the worse from want of efficient teachers. H. 
McVickar has beeir teaching a class through the 
winter, but has recently left, as he is about going 
out of town for the season. More than this, we 
have concluded the bargain for the purchase of 
a church, and where do you think it is? Corner 
of Prince and Thompson Streets — in other words, 
the one in which Dr. Seabury now officiates, a 
place well known to us both of old. The Annun- 
ciation people are going to build a new church 
up-town, and in the mean while are to go in the 
chapel of the university, and then we take posses- 
sion of their church building as a Free Church." 

Wadhams , correspondence during the winter 
of 1845 an d 1846 contains three letters from his 
friend McVickar, the greater part of which would 
not be very interesting to the reader. They 
show him still remaining at Columbia College 
without having taken orders. Although he had 
abandoned his project of engaging in a monastic 
life with Wadhams in Essex County, he contin- 
ued to interchange books with him and matters 
of intelligence, especially matters regarding the 



Hypnotics Prescribed. 101 

Oxford movement, both in England and Amer- 
ica. They show a constant diminution of his 
own active interest in that movement. In one 
he says : " Experience teaches me that to trust 
in myself or any man is to lean upon a broken 
reed. Therefore, look up to Dr. Pusey or any 
other man as a leader, I will not." 

In a letter dated January 30th he intimates a 
certain shifting of the scenery in the Puseyism 
of New York which is not without interest. After 
detailing several novelties of practice and wor- 
ship introduced in New York and Brooklyn, he 
instances St. Luke's Church in Hudson Street, 
of whose rector he says : " I think I told you 
Mr. Forbes has early communion every Sunday 
except the second in the month, and recommends 
and hears confessions. He is gaining the in- 
fluence which Dr. Seabury is losing at the sem- 
inary." 

With the fading of that hope which once led 
him on, the hope of engrafting something higher 
and better on the dead branches of Anglicanism, 
comes the necessity of doing something else. 
Either one must go forward to Rome or settle 
down to rest where one is. But, for a true man, 
there is no rest without work. McVickar's letters 
show that he now began to feel it necessary to 
take orders, and find for himself occupation in 
the Anglican ministry. At the same time he 
shows a great desire to engage Wadhams to enter 
into some new and larger field of ministerial labor 



102 Re?niniscences, 1845— 1846. 

which might serve to tranquillize him. He sug- 
gests that Dr. Whittingham, bishop of Maryland, 
was in search of clergymen. He writes : " Bishop 
McCoskey, I understand, says he could fill twenty 
stations if he had the men." He then adds: 
" Bishop Ives has just called here. I mentioned 
your name to him. He is in want, he says, of 
some clergy of clear Catholic views and practice, 
to assist in establishing the tone of his diocese. 
Do you know him? I am sure you would like 
him." 

The reader will readily recognize the name 
last mentioned. Dr. Ives was then bishop of 
North Carolina ; he afterwards became a convert 
to the ancient church, in which he lived as a 
layman. He is well known to Catholics as the 
founder of the Catholic Protectory near New York 
City, and other charitable enterprises. His wife 
was a daughter of the famous John Henry Ho- 
bart, Protestant bishop of New York. She fol- 
lowed her husband into the church. McVickar 
was shortly afterwards ordained an Episcopalian 
deacon, and died of consumption in a few months. 

Several other letters are found among Wad- 
hams' papers, written by his former fellow-semi- 
narians, which belong to this same period of 
anxious doubt and hesitation. One of these is 
from Mr. Bostw T ick, a clergyman settled at Bran- 
don, Vt. He belonged to the same circle of semi- 
narians with Carey and others, and his name is 
found mentioned more than once in Wadhams' 



Hypnotics Prescribed. 103 

correspondence. His career in matters of religion 
no longer ran parallel with that of our friend, for 
he had taken to himself a wife. Children had 
begun to grow around his hearth. These needed 
providing for, and his parishioners of Brandon 
owed back salary to their last pastor, and under 
these embarrassing circumstances they judged it 
to be imprudent to pay their present pastor any 
at all. The Vermont hills afforded " a fine pros- 
pect, but poor eating. " The letter contains other 
things of a more spiritual character, but no at- 
tempt is made to advise Wadhams or administer 
interior comfort. 

Among the letters belonging to this period and 
preserved by Wadhams is one of peculiar inter- 
est. This interest is derived not merely from 
the fact that the writer was a fellow-seminarian, 
and deeply involved in the new Oxford move- 
ment, but because in it he delineates so fully and 
clearly his own position of doubt, anxiety, and 
distress, and gives also the motives which drew 
him towards the Catholic Church and those which 
held him back. His position was very much the 
same as that of Wadhams, although, unlike Wad- 
hams, he did not become a Catholic. We omit 
the writer's name, because he is still living, and 
may have the same or similar prudential reasons 
for reticence which, as he himself intimates, ex- 
isted at the time of writing. The letter is dated 
March 3d, 1846. After some preliminary excuses 
for not writing sooner, it says ; 



104 Reminiscences, 1 845-1 846. 

" How great — how very great changes have 
taken place since we met! how many friends 
have gone from 11s ! how many among us have 
shrunk back! I must confess that when the 
'secession ' first took place, I felt very miserable, 
very desolate and unhappy; and still at times I 
find myself giving way to such feelings, but I 
have become, as a general thing, more reconciled 
to it; and, believing as I do most firmly that God 
is with us still as' a part of His holy church, and 
that there are holy men among us to act as His 
instruments, I am becoming more warmly at- 
tached to our holy, afflicted mother, and will pray 
and strive that she may be lifted out of the dust. 
She cannot now be invited to the centre of Catho- 
lic unity, but the time for that union will come, 
and it seems to me my duty to labor in and for 
her that she may be prepared for it. I do think 
that changes in matters of practice, and in some 
matters of requirement, must take place in the 
Mother Church before the daughter can become 
reconciled to her, and God, who is all powerful, 
will bring about those changes in His good time, 
and will bring about that union, too, for which 
we so much long. 

" But here I am writing on without being mind- 
ful, dear Wadhams, that you differ with me on 
some of these points. We may see things alike 
yet ; and whichever of us may be wrong I pray 
God to lead to the truth. I have gotten over that 
dread, even for the truth itself, which I once felt, 




Rev. Clarence A. Walworth, LL.D. 



Hoyt a Convert. 105 

and am ready and anxious to receive it now wher- 
ever and whatever it may be. 

"Only, dear brother, if you can conscientiously 
stand by our church in this her day of sorrow, 
do not forsake her; believe me, though you are 
isolated in position, yet there are more hearts 
than you think beating in sympathy with yours. 

" I see Mr. Hoyt has resigned his parish. Do 
you know what he is going to do? Tell me all 
you know about Bostwick ; I have not heard from 
him for a long time. . . ." 

The Rev. Mr. Hoyt mentioned in the above 
letter was a married clergyman of St. Albans, 
Vt., who soon after the above writing, and about 
the same time as Wadhams, entered the Catholic 
Church with all his family. After the death of 
his wife, he took priest's orders. At his first 
Mass eight of his children received communion 
from his hands. One of his daughters is now a 
contemplative nun of the Dominican Order and 
of the strictest observance. Another became a 
nun of the Sacred Heart, and died a most holy 
death in that order. Many other kinsmen of this 
family have become Catholics. The recent death 
of Father Hoyt, although, of course, on many 
accounts an affliction to his friends, occurred 
under circumstances which lent a peculiar beauty 
to the event. The death-stroke fell upon him 
while celebrating Mass, and immediately after 
his communion. In this way, by the providence 



106 Reminiscences, 1 845-1 846. 

of God, he received his Viaticum at the altar and 
administered by himself. He neither spoke nor 
tasted anything after this. His last words were 
the words of the Mass, and his last food was Food 
from heaven. 

I am. glad to find among the letters written to 
Wadhams at this period some from the Rev. 
Charles Piatt. He was a first cousin of mine, 
and had an intimate acquaintance with Wadhams, 
dating from their seminary life together. He 
was a man of high scholarship and fine talents, 
and a clear, sound judgment, with a most inno- 
cent and excellent boyhood behind him, like 
Wadhams * own. I cannot venture to omit his 
letters altogether, because they represent so 
graphically the spirit of the Oxford movement 
in America, with all that young life which filled 
the bosoms of our seminarians and fresh gradu- 
ates from the seminary. How near Piatt was to 
the Catholic Church may be learned from the 
opening sentence of a letter which he sent to me 
near the close of July, 1845, just before my de- 
parture for Europe. It was in answer to one of 
mine informing him of my conversion, announc- 
ing my departure, and asking him to come to 
New York and see me off. It ran thus : 

"Dear Cousin: I thank my God that your 
feet are at last planted upon the ' Rock of Peter. ' 
I cannot, however, close with your invitation to 
come to New York and see you embark. To ac- 



Letters from Piatt. 107 

cept that invitation would mean that I am ready 
to become a Catholic, and I am not. I cannot 
break my mother's heart. . . ." 

A letter from Whicher at the same time, and 
in answer to a similar invitation, announced to 
me that he had decided to come, but had changed 
his mind on learning that Piatt would not. Piatt 
died out of the Fold many years later, leaving a 
wife and children. Whicher also married, and 
twice, taking parishes at Clayville and Whites- 
boro' in Oneida County. It was ten years before 
he took the great step. After that he was living 
in Oneida County, a Catholic layman. His first 
wife is known to literature as the " Widow Be- 
dott." The second became a Catholic shortly 
after himself. Piatt's first letter to Wadhams 
runs as follows : 

"Rochester, Dec. 31st, 1845. 
" My dear Friend : It was not my intention to 
follow your example of delay, but circumstances 
have placed my time out of my own control. I 
have lately understood from Clarence's friends 
that he had arrived at Belgium. His Protestant 
connections cannot, of course, see any reason for 
his course, and set it down as a vagary from 
which he will eventually return. Sometimes, in 
view of the quiet and communion with the sainted 
which he must now strongly experience, I have 
been tempted to the wish, 'Oh, that I had the 
wings of a dove ! ' but such thirstings are only 



108 Reminiscences, 1 845-1 846. 

the signs of a struggle, and not really the best 
relief for us. Poor Pollard ! He never crossed 
my sight; yet I cannot help feeling drawn toward 
him in the hour of his oppression — an oppression 
the more hateful under a system which provides 
no remedy. If the mere breathing of Catholic 
truth is thus to be choked out of one, woe worth 
the day! However, let them rue it that need; 
it is not the sufferer's part. . . . 

" And now I beg you not to be so dilatory 
again, nor to complain of my remissness. I hear 
nothing directly from Clarence or 'Mac/ Be- 
lieve me, yours in bonds, 

"C. H. Platt." 

The news from Europe which Platt could not 
furnish came directly to Wadhams in a letter 
from me, dated at St. Trond, Belgium, February 
7th, 1846. It reads: 

" Dear Wadhams : You are no doubt surprised 
that I have not written to you long ago. I assure 
you it is a matter which has disturbed me not a 
little. It is a debt I owe you, not only of friend- 
ship, but of gratitude, and I have been very un- 
easy at my inability to discharge it. But the 
necessary duties of each day have been a severe 
tax upon my eyes, and I had much writing to do 
which it was impossible to neglect, so that I have 
been debarred from letter-writing. Hitherto I 
have written only three letters to America — two 
of them to my parents, and one to Preston." 



Pusey on Newman' s Conversion. 109 

I remember this letter to Preston (the late 
Mgr. T. S. Preston, Vicar-General of the Arch- 
diocese of New York) , then a Protestant semina- 
rian at Twentieth Street. John Henry New- 
man had at last passed through the " encircling 
gloom," and closed his sharp, short struggle with 
pain by openly and fully professing the Catholic 
faith and joining the true Fold. In adverting 
to this event, the news of which had just reached 
our convent, I spoke of Dr. Pusey' s comment 
upon it. It is stated that he said, with an air of 
quiet resignation : " Well, it is all right ; the Ro- 
man Catholics have prayed harder than we, and 
so they have got him! " When this was told to 
Father Othmann, our novice-master, he was dis- 
gusted, and said: "This language is neither ra- 
tional nor manly. It is nothing but baby talk." 
I repeated this in my letter to Preston, who re- 
plied indignantly that he did not agree with me 
at all; that Dr. Pusey's sentiment was that of a 
man both reasonable and spiritual. There must 
have been hard praying on our side for Preston 
in New York, for not very long after this the 
Catholics scored a similar victory in his case. 
But to return to my letter to Wadhams : 

" I have just been allowed a dispensation from 
all the common exercises of the novitiate except 
the daily conference, in order to open my heart 
a little to some of my far-off friends in America, 
and I begin with you. You cannot conceive how 



no Reminiscences, 1 845-1 846. 

much I want you here. I do not know how to 
excuse myself for not having brought you away 
forcibly upon my back. Ah ! if the quondam 
abbot of Wadhams Mills were only here, where 
the discipline of the religious life is found in all 
its wisdom, vigor, and attractiveness, he would 
weep and laugh by turns with me at our futile 
'monkery ' among the hills of Essex. He would 
believe readily what Father Rumpler told me at 
New York, that the Puseyites have found only 
the carcass of Catholicism, while the soul, the 
life, the breath of God, the spirit of holiness is 
hidden from them. You remember our many 
conversations of last winter, how we lamented 
the want of religious system, and of guidance for 
the conscience, and how we magnified the happi- 
ness of Catholics and especially the religious who 
live under direction. I can answer for it we were 
both sincere and earnest. But for myself I con- 
fess I scarcely knew what I talked about. Judge 

B thought us not a little romantic. I wish 

he might see the reality. Romance would seem 
tame. I deny that I had any romantic thoughts 
when I came here; but, if I had, a few months' 
routine would dissipate that. To get up at half-" 
past four every morning at the sound of bell, 
precisely, neither before nor after; to go to bed 
at half-past nine of necessity, and all day long 
in the mean time to sit or stand or move at the 
sound of the convent clock, the remorseless clock 
which makes no account of the particular inspira- 



A Genuine Cloister. in 

tions you may have at the moment ; to make rec- 
reation with the others whether yon feel like it or 
not, in short, to have yonr own way in nothing — 
this may be romance to Puseyites, who eat and 
sleep and pray at their leisure, but here at St. 
Trond it is a sober, every -day sort of business. 
No, there is no romance about it. For a man 
who is not in earnest to save his soul, who has 
neither the fear of hell, the love of God, nor the 
desire of holiness, it is dull play. But for one 
who is disgusted with his sins, and mourns the 
hardness of heart and sensuality which separates 
him from God, who loves the character of Jesus 
Christ, and burns with desire to imitate it, this 
Congregation of St. Alphonsus Liguori is a 
'treasure-trove/ to which he will cling as a 
drowning man clings to whatever will support 
him. I assure you I had no conception of the 
real value of spiritual direction, and especially 
such direction as is found in the novitiate. Here 
there is no guile, none of those constant little 
deceptions which even the most honest in the 
world abound with. The whole heart is opened 
to your superior. Prepared by the experience of 
years, he scrutinizes your character and tempera- 
ment, and explains to you your characteristic 
faults, and the means by which you must seek 
to do away with them. He watches your daily 
progress and teaches you to know yourself and 
watch yourself. Here we find rigor, but the rigor 
is in the rule and not in the manner. Love is 



ii2 Reminiscences, 1 845-1 846. 

the presiding spirit, and even the rule must bend 
to charity. We are a perfect family — fathers, 
children, brothers. We know each other well, 
and understand mutually the different peculiari- 
ties of character, and thus distrust is altogether 
banished, while the common life, the common 
interest, the common hopes, the congregation 
which links us all together inseparably until we 
shall be called to join the more perfect congre- 
gation of heaven make harmony and mutual love 
unavoidable. Here, my dear friend, is a home 
for you. I cannot doubt that you have a voca- 
tion to such a life. Your past history, so much 
as I know of it, your tastes and preferences, and 
the desire you have so long had for a monastic 
life are proof of it. It is a missionary order also, 
and in it better than anywhere else you can dis- 
charge your duty to God and your country. Be- 
lieve me, the Redemptorists will raise a commo- 
tion yet in Essex County. The sincere love I 
bear you, as well as the desire I have that you 
and McMaster and I, with many others such as 
you, native Americans and still Protestants, may 
go up together in the cause of Christ against the 
devils which pervert the hearts of the American 
people, and hinder their salvation, stimulate me 
to write you in this manner. I know the diffi- 
culties in your way ; but they are of the flesh — 
human. They are opportunities which God af- 
fords you of beginning with a sacrifice as an 
earnest of your fidelity. Certainly, how can one 



A Genuine Ctoister. 113 

hope to gain heaven by the way of the cross when 
he is cowed by the first difficulty which presents 
itself? I also had my difficulty of the same na- 
ture. I will not concede that I love my mother 
less than you love yours. But now I am sure 
that, by becoming a Catholic, I have created 
strong reasons for my parents and others to think 
more tenderly of Catholics and Catholicism than 
before. But, after all, this is not the great ques- 
tion — it is enough that the voice of God calls all 
men to His Church, and declares that he who is 
not with Him is against Him. The sects of this 
day in controversy with that Church, as well as 
the ancient sects, were not created by God to 
gather in His elect ; and how can one who knows 
the Catholic Church seek for salvation in them? 
Forgive me all this, dear Wadhams ; it is on my 
heart and I must needs out with it. I cannot 
rest content when I think how one noble resolu- 
tion would carry you to New York to make your 
profession and then hither to this lieaven on earth, 
for of your vocation I cannot doubt. Do not, I 
beseech you, counsel with those whom you know 
to be sunk in heresy up to the hair, or guided by 

mere worldly motives, or, like H , paralyzed 

by timidity. I desired to enclose a little billet in 
the letter McMaster wrote you, but he sent it off 
without thinking of me. He desires to be kindly 
remembered to you. He sets to work now to 
humble himself in the spirit of obedience with 
the same zeal as when a Puseyite he thought to 



ii4 Reminiscences, 1 845-1 846. 

erect dioceses and create bishops. You would 
scarcely know him. The Catholic Church has a 
gentle hand, but a nervous one. 

11 Indeed, now that I am living under her direct 
influence, there has grown up a feeling of her 
mysterious power which is far more forcible than 
the arguments which convinced me before. I 
have a great deal that I want to say to you, but 
in so short a compass what can I do? I would 
like to give you some description of our life here, 
which I know would so much interest you. I 
wrote Preston a minute account of our daily ex- 
ercises; but you cannot see that, as you are so 
far away from New York. But I will give you 
some idea in brief: We have here twelve Fathers, 
or missionaries, who are about half the time on 
missions, and half in convent ; some fifteen lay- 
brothers; besides these our "Pere Maitre " of 
novices, and his associate the " Pere Socius," with 
twenty novices. We rise at half-past four, break- 
fast at half-past seven, dine at twelve, sup at 
seven, and go to bed at half-past nine. We have 
an hour's recreation together after dinner and 
another after supper, when we may converse to- 
gether. All the rest of the day is spent in si- 
lence. Friday and Thursday are excepted, the 
first a day of constant silence and retreat, the 
latter one of general recreation. We have nearly 
two hours' time each day to spend in bodily ex- 
ercise and manual labor. All the rest of the day 
is occupied either in private prayer and spiritual 



A Genuine Cloister. 115 

reading or in the various public exercises of the 
novitiate. The perfect regularity of everything 
about the convent would make you wonder. All 
is obedience, and obedience makes order easy. 
No time is wasted. The whole day is occupied. 
But I can give you no idea of our life here. It 
is so entirely different from everything you find 
in the world. It would require a book to describe 
it. A full insight into a convent would be in 
itself an all-sufficient refutation of Protestantism. 
It would show also how utterly impossible was 
our scheme to establish the conventual life out 
of the Church, because out of the Church no one 
can be found to whom monastic obedience is 
due. A number of persons may agree to obey 
Breck or some other Protestant, but such obedi- 
ence cannot be perfect nor last long. The au- 
thority of the superior must come from God 
through the sanction of His Church. The mere 
agreement of men cannot create it. This Pusey- 
ite idea is in itself a thoroughly Protestant no- 
tion. For my part I would shudder to submit 
the welfare of my body and soul to any other au- 
thority than that of God, and that authority we 
Catholic religious find in our superiors. But I 
have made already a very long letter, and must 
close. God knows how I long to see you, and see 
you safely delivered from your perilous position. 
You have created by your past kindness an obli- 
gation to love you, and I never forget you, nor 
your excellent mother, at the Holy Sacrifice. 



1 1 6 Reminiscences, 1 845-1 846. 

Please write me, or better yet, come yourself, 
and let us tread together this dangerous road of 
life, and seek under the same rules and the same 
guidance to wash white our garments and prepare 
to meet Our Lord at His coming. Give my love 
to your kind mother, and my remembrance to 

Mrs. Hammond and family, Judge B and 

family. God and our dear Lady defend and guide 
you. Your faithful friend ever, 

"Clarence Walworth. 
" P. S. — I cannot think of leaving so large a 
space unfilled when we have so little opportunity 
of communication. I might tell you of our voy- 
age across the ocean to Portsmouth, of Winches- 
ter Cathedral (of which however, we saw the 
outside only from the cars), of London, West- 
minster Abbey, the tomb of St. Edward the Con- 
fessor within it, etc. Splendid old Abbey! it 
made me melancholy to see it, like an old giant 
bound and helpless in a godless city. It presents 
a long history; almost from the time of the Con- 
quest. Constant additions of chapels were made 
to it until the Reformation — and since then con- 
stant decay. Here and there you see headless 
figures, broken by Cromwell's soldiers and others, 
but no repairs. The Protestants now do not know 
what to do with it. They use a large transept 
to bury play-actors and poets, and have set apart 
a kind of meeting-house in the middle of it which 
looks like a little Protestant pill which the noble 
old abbey has been constrained to swallow , but the 



A Genuine Cloister. 117 

greater part has been unused and therefore is the 
less abused. The Church of St. Saviour, by the 
London Bridge, is also very ancient, and pleased 
McMaster better than the abbey; but it is unfor- 
tunately occupied. If I were with you I should 
have a great deal to say of what we have seen 
and heard, but as it is I can do nothing. There 
are churches not far from us which we have vis- 
ited sometimes Thursdays, when on promenade, 
which would make your heart rejoice could you 
see them. I have thought of you more than once 
when looking at them, because you enjoy such 
things more than I. For my part I like better 
the architecture and ornaments of my little square 
cell ; the table and crucifix hanging over it ; the 
wooden cross lying on my bed, my bedfellow at 
night ; the three-cornered black hat hanging over 
the door, my companion in the promenades; a 
little many-tailed cord with which on Wednes- 
days and Fridays we warm ourselves before going 
to bed ; the black habit which covers me, and the 
Rosary at my belt, please my simple Anglo-Saxon 
taste. They remind me of my resemblance in 
the outward circumstances to so many glorious 
saints, cloister saints, while they cover me with 
confusion, to think that this resemblance is all 
on the outside. But this is too much like twad- 
dle. I have but one idea when I think of you. 
I beg of you, my dear friend, in the name of Our 
Saviour, who made Himself homeless and a wan- 
derer in the world for our sake, to surrender at 



1 1 8 Reminiscences, 1845— 1846. 

once to your conscience, and declare yourself 
openly on His side. What advantage is it to read 
every day the lives of the saints, and their self- 
sacrifices, and still remain, through human re- 
spect, natural affection, or the dread of a transi- 
tory suffering of mind in a church which has no 
more solidity of faith or practice than a bag of 
wind is solid? Forgive me if I am too rude. I 
do not mean to^be so. You know well that in 
my heart I have no other sentiments towards you 
than love and esteem. Farewell ! May God bless 
you ! Do not neglect the Holy Mother of God, 
who will not fail to help you if you pray to her. 
She is a better friend and counsellor than you 
will find in the Protestant Episcopal Church of 
the United States and England, which Newman, 
Oakeley, Faber, and others have left. Where do 
you find your fellows now? Nowhere, dear Wad- 
hams, unless you consent to fall back on those 
behind you, and if you commence to fall back 
where will you stop ? If you wish to learn any- 
thing of our order or receive guidance for the 
conscience from one who knows how to guide 
tenderly and well, consult Father Rumpler at 
New York, either by visit or by letter. (Rev. 
Gabriel Rumpler, C.SS.R., Third Street, New 
York.)" 

The time had now come when Wadhams took 
his first positive step with reference to a possible 
union with the Roman Catholic Church. He held 



Wadhams resigns his Charge. 119 

an official position in the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, and was in charge of a missionary field 
of labor therein. This fixed upon him a certain 
responsibility toward that church. It gave him 
certain duties in it, and so far abridged his inde- 
pendence. In case of deciding to become a Cath- 
olic he was not free to step from one church into 
the other without a show, at least, of inconsistent 
conduct. For instance, to become a Catholic on 
Thursday would, make it difficult to preach in a 
Protestant pulpit on the Sunday before, or ad- 
minister the rites of worship there. The doc- 
trine and the worship which would be suitable 
to his conscience on Thursday would look like 
treachery in a Protestant church on Sunday. 
The fact that unfavorable comments are actually 
made in such cases shows that there are rules of 
honesty and propriety to be observed by converts, 
which are nevertheless embarrassing, and which 
require caution and deliberation. Wadhams was 
both honest and wise; and, therefore, to make 
himself independent, he began by resigning his 
charge in time. A second letter, which we now 
give, from the Rev. Charles Piatt, alludes to 
this resignation of Wadhams* mission in Essex 
County:. 

"St. Paul's, Rochester, West N. Y. 

"Monday in Holy Week, April 6th, 1846. 
"My dear Wadhams: I hasten to answer 
yours of the 27th ult. After hope long deferred, 



120 Reminiscences, 1845-1846. 

you have truly relieved me. I had grown quite 
anxious about you. not knowing but your health 
had failed, or you had lost confidence in my sym- 
pathy with you, or you had already taken a step 
which would, indeed, sever us widely. I am glad 
to learn that you are yet holding fast to your 
contentment as well as your confidence, but I 
must regret that any circumstances should have 
forced you to cease from your labors for good. 
Forced you must have been, for no ruggedness 
of the field would deter you, nor any common 
hardships have driven you from your work. 

" From your letter I hardly know what to make 
of your intentions. You seem to have relin- 
quished your connection with the missionary 
operations of our church. Do you mean by that 
to say that you disconnect yourself from any 
ministerial labor in the church? I rather sur- 
mised that you were inclined to follow Clarence 
and McMaster. If so, we are outwardly severed 
— probably in your opinion altogether severed. I 
do not doubt that they were both acting with a 
good conscience — perhaps with a clearer con- 
science than I shall ever know. But I cannot in 
conscience follow them. Mr. Newman's Essay I 
have not read. I began it but had not time dur- 
ing Lent to finish it deliberately. . . . 

" Whicher is in priest's orders. He had a 
hard time winter before the last. They passed 
him to the priesthood last fall ; but he was plump 
with them, and kept nothing back. . . . 



Plait Sticks. Wadhams Leaps. 121 

"I am surprised that you should leave your 
parish before Easter. This is the season, if any, 
to labor in our church, and to humble the Protes- 
tant pride. I have heard nothing from Clarence 
directly. Should like to hear very much. 

" Yours, 

"C. H. Platt." 

This is the last letter in my possession received 
by Wadhams while yet a Protestant. In less 
than three months he had passed beyond those 
days of doubt and desolation. He communicated 
the joyful intelligence to me in a letter which 
found me in Belgium, still in my novitiate, and 
preparing to make my vows. I am sorry not 
to have preserved it. It would be a treasure now. 

It is strange that when the long agony was at 
an end, and Wadhams' resolution was taken to 
"cross over,' ' the crossing was not found to be 
easy. A priest was necessary to receive him. 
And who should be that priest ? Naturally the 
nearest priest would answer the purpose. Why 
not go to him? This is just what he did, al- 
though that priest was a perfect stranger to him. 
It is said that he entered a Catholic church or 
chapel in his own native Adirondacks, but after 
a brief conference with the priest he was allowed 
to depart without encouragement. As Wadhams 
turned away the clergyman said to one of his 
parishioners : " Look after that young man ; I 
wonder what he is up to! " 



122 Reminiscences, 1 845-1 846. 

His second attempt was made at Albany. He 
rang the bell at the door of St. Mary's rectory, 
then a bishop's residence. He made known his 
state of mind and wishes to an ecclesiastic of the 
house, and was answered, so it is said : " We are 
very busy here, and can't attend to you." Won- 
derful that this should have occurred at the very 
door through which he so often afterward passed 
on holy errands of duty and charity when him- 
self officiating there as a Catholic priest. His 
third and more successful application was made 
to the Sulpicians of St. Mary's Seminary, Balti- 
more. Here the future Bishop of Ogdensburg 
was cordially received, duly prepared, and ad- 
mitted to that great Motherly Bosom so patiently 
sought for, so lovingly clung to. 



Gbapter X). 

Wabbams 9 %ifc at tbe Sulpician Seminary ^Baltimore, 

1846-1850. 

f HE life of Edgar P. Wadhams now enters 
upon a new epoch. He dwells beneath a 
^ new sky. He breathes a new air. All 
his surroundings are new. His old companions 
are all still dear to him, but in one sense they 
are far away. They no longer see by the same 
light; they no longer look at the same stars. 
Their religious intercourse is broken up; and 
yet, to a true Christian, that intercourse of soul 
with soul is the best, holiest, sweetest that life 
affords. It follows, therefore, very naturally that 
almost all of Wadhams' correspondence changes. 
The familiar friends of earlier days for the most 
part cease to write letters, or at least such letters 
as men love to lay by for re-perusal. I find 
among Wadhams' papers a letter from the Rev. 
Armand Charbonnel, dated August 6th, 1846. 
Before he entered the seminary at Baltimore, 
Wadhams must have visited Vermont, where he 
made or renewed an acquaintance with Father 
Charbonnel. This French priest was a Sulpician, 
had been a professor at St. Mary's Seminary, 

123 



124 Remi?iiscences, 1 846-1850. 

Baltimore, and afterwards at St. Sulpice, Mon- 
treal, and still later became Bishop of Toronto. 
He had advised him to prepare for the priest- 
hood by entering the seminary at Montreal, or 
still better, if possible, to make his studies at 
Rome or Paris. 

In his letter Father Charbonnel communicates 
to Wadhams the conversion of Rev. Mr. Hoyt, 
already referred J:o. This connects naturally 
with the current of our reminiscences and is a 
matter of interest. We give it in the words of 
the letter : 

" Rev. Mr. Hoyt, of St. Albans, made his First 
Communion on last Sunday week, after having 
been previously baptized and absolved ; and he 
received again on last Sunday, when his wife and 
four children were baptized and confirmed, as 
well as himself. He is a man of learning and 
property, but not settled as yet about what he 
will do. His countenance is remarkably sweet 
and noble ; as for his lordship, Bishop Hopkins, 
he is mad with our new brother's change, or 
perversion. Requiescat in pace. He went so far 
lately, speaking against Catholics on that occa- 
sion, that one of his near relatives, a Protestant, 
left the church crying out : ' I am sick with such 
a bitterness! ' " 

It will be remembered that this Bishop Hop- 
kins of Vermont had a public controversy with 
Archbishop Kenrick of Baltimore, in which the 



At St. Mary's, Baltimore. 125 

principal question discussed was the validity of 
Anglican orders. I recall to mind that Arthur 
Carey had at one time lived in Vermont in famil- 
iar relations with Bishop Hopkins, either as an 
inmate of his household or pupil in one of his 
schools, and always spoke of him as a man of 
great intelligence and learning. 

I fear the reader is already wearied with so 
many letters. The narrative of events, personal 
recollections, and anecdotes are livelier and easier 
reading. But to historical minds that value 
faithful reality more, who wish to see the past 
just as it existed to the eyes of those who lived 
in the past, letters have a deeper interest. How- 
ever, be this as it may, letters henceforth will 
not figure much in these reminiscences. We 
give just one more. It is a voice from across the 
sea, addressed to the abbot of St. Mary's, now 
dethroned, and a student at the seminary in Bal- 
timore. It is a joyous and affectionate hail from 
the disbanded community of one. 

"Wittem, December 1st, 1846. 
"My dear Wadhams: You see I date from 
another place, because, having happily finished 
my novitiate at St. Trond, and taken the vows, I 
am now busy like yourself in preparing for the 
priesthood. You have some idea perhaps of the 
great joy I felt on receiving your letter and find- 
ing you safely anchored in the harbor of the 
Church. God be thanked, my dear friend, that 



126 Reminiscences, 1 846-1 850. 

we have no longer to deal with the shuffling prin- 
ciples of Puseyism, but with the firm, unchang- 
ing, and unshaken faith ! I should have written 
you a reply long ago to testify my joy at the 
happy step you have taken, but thought I would 
delay until I had made my vows ; and the new 
circumstances in which I find myself have occa- 
sioned still further delay, for I am scarcely yet 
domesticated in my new abode. The liberty I 
took to chatter to you about your vocation was 
wholly on the supposition of your being at Wad- 
hams Mills all alone among Protestants. Of 
course, you have now spiritual guides and every 
means of determining to what life God calls you. 
May our Blessed Lord grant you a long and use- 
ful life and the souls of many of your country- 
men to testify in your favor at the day of judg- 
ment. I would love still to embrace you as a 
Redemptorist, but that is a matter with which I 
ought not to meddle too much. I will commend 
your vocation to our Blessed Lady, who knows 
what is best for you and for the good cause. 
McMaster, you know of course, has left us. He 
carries our good wishes and prayers with him. 
He made a long and careful trial of his vocation, 
and though it was found that God did not call 
him to the religious state, still, his good will will 
find its reward. His departure was much re- 
gretted by all his fellow-novices, who loved him 
and speak alw T ays of him with much affection. 
Of course, you can conceive the feelings of us 



At St. Mary's, Baltimore. 127 

two Americans [Isaac Hecker and myself] . Pre- 
sent him my good wishes and warm love should 
you fall in his way. 

" I have no idea of what is going on in Amer- 
ica. Pray, does the good cause make progress? 
Do the Puseyites convert themselves, or do they 
take the back track, and swallow down again all 
the great Catholic sentiments they have been ac- 
customed to utter? God have mercy on them, 
for it is a fearful thing to approach so near the 
Holy Ark, and then turn their backs. What is 
the state of the seminary? Is there still left a 
leaven of holy mischief, some good seed of truth 
which gives hope of fruit to the salvation of those 
poor Anglicans? 

" As for my future destiny, you know, of course, 
that the vow of obedience leaves me no choice. 
I am at the disposal of my superiors, thank God. 
I can say, however, that I have commenced a 
course of theology which will most likely last two 
years. There is, therefore, little prospect of my 
returning to America before that time, should I 
return at all. 

" I send you this by means of some of our 
Fathers who leave very soon for missions in 
America. My present address is 'Wittem — par 
Maestricht — Limbourg — Holland. Care of Rev. 
FF. Redemptorists, etc.' 

" The country in which I am resembles very 
much New England in its scenery. The people 
are whole-souled Catholics — poor, but full of 



128 Reminiscences, 1 846-1 830. 

faith. The little children when they meet us 
run up to touch our hands with their little hands, 
esteeming it as a benediction no doubt. Close 
by us, on the summit of a hill, is a large cross, or 
crucifix, which can be seen from a great distance, 
with a 'Way of the Cross ' leading up to it, where 
the people may celebrate the different stations of 
Our Lord's passion in a manner exceedingly ap- 
propriate. I was much struck when I first saw 
it, and thought oT you, who love so much to see 
such things by the wayside. And now, farewell, 
my dear friend and brother in Christ ! Our sweet 
Lady guide and protect you always, and build in 
both our hearts a convent of retirement and con- 
templation better contrived and better executed 
than our quondam monastery at Wadhams Mills 
— where she herself may preside as our good 
Lady Abbess, with Jesus for the great Head of 
our Order. Your faithful friend and brother in 
Christ, C. Walworth." 

Wadhams had been received into the church 
in June, 1846, by Dr. Peter Fredet, then registrar 
of the Sulpician Seminary. Father Deluol was 
president. He received tonsure and minor orders 
from Archbishop Eccleston, September 2d, 1847. 
Two years later he was made deacon. He was 
ordained priest at St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral, Al- 
bany, by Bishop McCloskey, January 15th, 1850; 
and continued to reside in that city, as assistant 
priest, rector of the Cathedral, and later as 



At St. Mary's, Baltimore. 129 

vicar-general, until he became Bishop of Ogd ens- 
burg. 

Although separated from my friend Wadhams 
by the broad Atlantic for a period of five years, 
including the whole of his course at the Sulpician 
Seminary of St. Mary's, Baltimore, two sources 
of information have just been opened which sup- 
ply me with some very definite and valuable 
information concerning his seminary career. 
Father Griffin, a venerable priest still living at St. 
Charles* College, Ellicott City, Md., was a com- 
panion and intimate friend of Bishop Wadhams 
while at the seminary. Though now advanced 
in years and unable to write, he remembers 
very well the young convert from the Northern 
Woods, and the olden times when they were to- 
gether in Baltimore. His reminiscences have 
been communicated to me, in answer to my writ- 
ten inquiries. I have also letters from the Rev. 
H. F. Parke. Although, to borrow his own de- 
scription of himself, " well worn with forty years 
of mission labors of all sorts — from the Kentucky, 
Tennessee, and North Carolina to the Mason and 
Dixon lines " — and now obliged in his old age to 
lie by as chaplain to the Visitation Convent in 
Wheeling, West Virginia, Father Parke remem- 
bers Wadhams well. He also was his companion 
at St. Mary's, and "warms up at his name and 
memory " to send me valuable contributions. 

Father Griffin tells us that Wadhams entered 
the Baltimore Seminary impressed with a feeling 



130 Reminiscences, 1846-1850. 

that he had come to the source, the centre, the 
cradle of Catholicity in the United States. He 
put himself absolutely in the hands of the supe- 
rior of the seminary, then the Very Rev. Louis 
Regis Deluol, S.S. I saw Father Deluol at Saint 
Sulpice, in Paris, early in the winter of 1850. 
Four Sisters of Charity from the United States 
dropped in upon us at the same time, and a very 
lively and delighted American party we made. 
The picture of the genial and superb old man is 
strongly impressed upon my memory. In Father 
Deluol the young neophyte found a pronounced 
admirer and warm friend. The "seminary also 
numbered among its faculty Messrs. Verot, after- 
wards Bishop of Savannah, and still later trans- 
ferred to the see of St. Augustine ; Lhomme, who 
afterwards became president of the seminary; 
Fredet, then registrar of the seminary, and Du- 
breuil. Socially and spiritually, therefore, the 
ex,- Anglican deacon could say, as I am told he 
often did say, Fiines ceciderunt rnihi in prceclaris. 
" He was happy, thoroughly happy, " writes Father 
Parke, " without a doubt or misgiving left to ruffle 
his peace of mind." The superior placed Wad- 
hams under the instruction of the Rev. Father 
P. Fredet, D.D., or rather, as they used to say 
at the seminary, of Mr. Fredet. It was evident 
to him that Wadhams had been already well in- 
structed in the faith before his arrival, and he 
was, therefore, soon received into the church, and 
baptized solemnly in St. Mary's Chapel. His 



At St. Mary's, Baltimore. 131 

kneeling for three years to so austere an ascetic 
as Fredet in confession — the same priest who 
reconciled him to the church — gives us an ink- 
ling, says Parke, of how bravely he was then 
travelling in the pathway of the Crucified. 

St. Mary's Seminary in Wadhams' time could 
only accommodate nineteen students. Of these 
the average attendance in the divinity classes 
was about twelve ; the rest were collegians of the 
petit seminaire, or philosophers. 

Among his companions were the late Father 
Bernard McManus, of St. John's, Baltimore, and 
the Reverend Francis Boyle, of Washington City. 
With these for many years Wadhams maintained 
a long and loving intimacy, frequently visiting 
and receiving visits from them. To them must 
be added, besides those already mentioned, 
John McNally, afterwards pastor of St. Stephen's 
Church, Washington City; John Henry Walters, 
of the Wheeling diocese ; Francis Xavier Leray, 
afterwards Archbishop of New Orleans; Jacob 
Walter, of St. Patrick's Church, Washington 
City; John Larkin, of New York City; Henry 
Hennis, of Philadelphia, and William Lambert, 
of Pittsburgh, brother of Father Lambert, of 
Waterloo, N. Y. Right Rev. Thomas P. Foley, 
of Chicago, was ordained in 1846, and must, 
therefore, have graduated just before Wadhams* 
arrival. As, however, Mr. Foley continued for 
some years to reside at Baltimore, becoming 
vicar-general of the archdiocese, he must be num- 



132 Reminiscences, 1 846-1 850. 

bered in the group of friends in which Wadhams 
now mingled, and which helped to develop a 
character so open to all good influences. 

The period of our friend's introduction to this 
new and valuable circle of friends was a very 
lively one for the American church, as Father 
Parke reminds us : " It was the era of Brown- 
son's submission to the church, and of hunger 
to get hold of his essays. Even the stolid Dr. 
Fredet enthused over them, and compared their 
writer to Suarez in breadth and depth of treat- 
ing his subjects; McMaster from his tripod w r as 
making things lively and interesting ; while such 
writers as Martin J. Spalding and Dr. Verot were 
handling, with gloves off, the Southern Quarterly 
Review y for its defective reviewing of D'Au- 
bigne's History of the Reformation; others were 
canvassing Dr. Jarvis' reply to Milner's End of 
Controversy; while the United States Catholic Mag- 
azine, edited by the Rev. Charles I. White and 
M. J. Spalding, later our Archbishop of Balti- 
more, was then at the height of its usefulness." 

Wadhams now found himself in a new world 
of manly religious thought and sound theology. 
He had escaped from the sentimental baby-house 
in which so many Anglicans w 7 ere amusing them- 
selves. The Catholic thought which now at- 
tracted him, and with which his mind was fed, 
was no longer a diluted water-gruel. His teach- 
ers dared to say what they meant, and were not 
obliged to present the truth in some form of Ian- 



At St. Marys, Baltimore. 133 

guage which left open a safe door of retreat. He 
was at last free, and felt his emancipation. 

I am anxious that Mr. Wadhams should be 
presented to the reader at this day in the same 
shape and light in which he appeared so long ago 
to his new friends at the Catholic Seminary. We 
will let Father Parke take the stand first. This 
is his testimony : 

" His subdued, manly, dignified bearing, and 
frank manners, were in his favor from his en- 
trance. Before being a month in the house, the 
impression made on the superiors and his fellow- 
students w r as deep, favorable, and lasting. All 
were of the belief that Wadhams would stick and 
prove an acquisition. His profound piety and 
scrupulous exactitude in observance of rule and 
addiction to the practices of the interior life, his 
lightheartedness and capacity to enjoy a joke, 
and take part in the recreations and sports, soon 
made him a general favorite." 

Father Griffin's memory sees him in the same 
light. He speaks of him thus: 

" Wadhams was a man in every way sincere, 
who knew no wish but what the world might 
hear. There was nothing stern about him, but 
he was always earnest in everything that he un- 
dertook. He was remarkable for his regularity 
in the observance of the rules and every duty. 
He was a marked man, but without any show of 
eccentricity. This, however, can be said, that 
the earnestness and common sense which charac- 



134 Reminiscences, 1 846-1 850. 

terized him were made emphatic by a simplicity 
of heart and manner that never forsook him. 

" In Lent he was a strict observer of the fast, 
though the observance cost considerably to his 
nature. In the morning he, as everybody else, 
took a cup of coffee with a water-cracker the size 
of a silver dollar. Dinner was at 1. 20 o'clock. 
One day," says Father Griffin, "meeting Wad- 
hams after the teaching of his morning class 
(about 12.40 o '-clock), I asked him: 'How are 
you, Mr. Wadhams? ' With his usual earnest 
tone, 'Don't talk to me,' said he; 'I feel as if I 
could eat brickbats.' 

" He lived in the seminary, but had to teach 
in the college. With the other seminarians he 
joined in all the games. He seemed to take 
much interest in the game of wooden balls. 
When he made a good play, he would lift his 
hands vigorously into the air, with an oft-repeated 
cry of — 4 Sam Hill! didn't I give a good hit? ' 

" From the beginning he gained the respect, 
the esteem, and the good will of the inmates. 
His name came to be held in benediction among 
all his friends in the seminary." 

In regard to his theological studies, and to his 
abilities as a teacher in the college, the testi- 
mony of Father Griffin is that his success was 
fair. That his success in study was not rated at 
more than fair, is not to be attributed to any 
want of superior intelligence. It came from a 
defective memory for names and words. This 



At Si. Mary's, Baltimore. 135 

defect attended him through his whole life. It 
made recitation in class less easy. In particular 
it made him a poor scholar in languages. Al- 
though often obliged to speak in French, espe- 
cially when travelling abroad or when making 
visitations in his diocese, he never could master 
that tongue or indeed any other. This same de- 
fect often embarrassed him when meeting with 
familiar friends. He could riot readily re- 
call : their proper names and addresses, and was 
not infrequently obliged to ask for these, to his 
own confusion. Any one, however, who might 
be tempted to mistake the want of this particular 
gift for a lack of keen intelligence, was soon 
forced to change his mind, on better acquaintance. 
The distinction which I have just endeavored to 
make is forcibly brought out by Saintine, in his 
story of Picciola. In speaking of a certain learned 
man who at the age of twenty-five years had a 
complete knowledge of seven languages, and was 
more notable for a love of discussion and quota- 
tion than any power of wise observation or re- 
flection, the author remarks:* "One can be a fool 
in several languages/* Montalembert had in his 
mind a similar distinction when, standing in the 
tribune of the French assembly and seeing around 
him a voluble crowd of red republican orators, 
he made them furious by calling them "little 
rhetoricians" { petit s rheteurs). 

One thing I deeply regret. I cannot give to 
the reader not personally and intimately aq-- 



136 Reminiscences, 1846-1850. 

quainted with Wadhams any just conception of 
that interior piety which made his life a true walk 
with God, and which certainly characterized him 
at St. Mary's Seminary. True, I have quoted 
the language of witnesses who state this strongly, 
and I myself might enlarge upon their statements. 
Statements and enlargements, however, of this 
kind make little impression upon most readers. 
The language of eulogy is something so custom- 
ary, and so freely and largely used, that they 
giwe little heed to it, and retain little of it in 
their memories, except when presented in facts 
which leave it pictured and framed into a distinct 
portrait of the man. The witnesses of Wadhams' 
life at St. Mary's are too few and they are too far 
away. Even if they were more numerous and 
nearer, still Wadhams was not a man to talk much 
about himself, and least of all to talk much of his 
own emotions or any of that secret intercourse 
which he held with his Maker. Familiar friends 
get to know something of this interior life of a 
good man, but only little by little, and this mostly 
by inferences drawn from outward actions. Wad- 
hams does not seem to have kept any diary or 
preserved copies of letters or papers of his own 
writing. The most sacred and best part of his 
life is, therefore, the least known to us. This is 
the great defect of the present " Reminiscences." 
I feel the defect deeply. It seems to me that I 
am presenting to the public a caricature of my 
friend rather than a real likeness. I am forced 



At St. Mary's, Baltimore. 137 

to dwell upon traits which, although really char- 
acteristic, yet belong only to the surface of the 
man, leaving the deeper and higher soul in 
shadow. I fear to have dwelt too much upon 
what is only peculiar, strange, striking, or amus- 
ing, rather than what is edifying. I have no ex- 
cuse but this, that I do my best. To represent 
a holy soul like Wadhams' truly and adequately 
would require a spirit like his own. Here, then, 
I must close this account of his life at Baltimore. 
It is the best that I can furnish. 



Cbaptet IDT 

TOaDbams' ipriestbooD at St. flfoarg'e Gbutcb anfc at tbe 
Gatbedral, BlbattE.— Gbe IKIlar of tbe IRebellton*— 
Ibis Grip to Europe anD tbe f)ol£ XanD* 

1850-1872. 

PROPOSE to treat the period of my friend 
Wadhams , priesthood not according to any 
^f regular biographical method, but by means 
of miscellaneous recollections. In this way I 
shall be able to illustrate more fully than I have 
yet done not only the spiritual character of the 
man, but to portray him in the discharge of his 
official duties and in his more familiar intercourse 
with others. This I can well afford to do because 
his career in the priesthood is not so much marked 
by striking events as by acts and circumstances 
which reveal his strong personality and the beauty 
and holiness of his character. 

Wadhams was eminently an unconventional 
man — unconventional in his thoughts, unconven- 
tional in his language, unconventional in all his 
ways. There was an openness and directness in 
his speech which made many of his sayings pecu- 
liar and memorable. 

Once when we were passing out from the front 

138 







M$m 




«! 

Pi 
Q 

h 
U 






His Love of Music. 139 

door of an inn he looked up at the sky and, stop- 
ping, said: "Perhaps it may rain; what do you 
think? " " I don't know," I replied: " let's con- 
sider a moment." "Well," said he, " while you 
are considering, I'll get the umbrella." 

Another time when walking up State Street, 
in Albany, in company with Father Kennedy, 
then an assistant at St. Mary's and now Vicar- 
General at Syracuse, who is pretty rapid in his 
movements, Father Wadhams felt disposed to 
move more slowly. "Young man," said he, 
" how long did you tell me you had been in this 
city?" "About three years," replied Kennedy. 
" Three years in Albany ! and don't know how to 
walk up-hill yet? " Strangers who have visited 
Albany will appreciate the force of the question. 

Wadhams had a fine musical ear and a great 
fondness for good ecclesiastical music. Among 
his manuscripts is an article on Gregorian chant 
written for the New York Churchman, which, per- 
haps, was never published. He was quite effi- 
cient in teaching plain singing and chanting. 
While officiating in the Anglican church at Ti- 
conderoga, he had a class of boys who assembled 
at the village inn and learned of him to read 
music and sing by help of a blackboard. He it 
was who first introduced in Albany the custom, 
now universal in all the Catholic churches there, 
of using the altar-boys to sing the responses at 
High Mass and to act as chanters in the sanc- 
tuary. He loved to attend the rehearsals of these 



140 Reviiniscences, 1850-1872. 

boys at the cathedral. They were always ani- 
mated by his presence to do their best. " Come 
now, boys," he would say, "hold up your heads 
and open your mouths. I don't want any dum- 
mies here." And then when their voices rang 
out clear and loud he would praise them heartily, 
and they were eager to please him. The regular 
choir in the Albany Cathedral acquired a high 
reputation in his time, and they owed it not 
merely to the great abilities of Mr. Carmody, the 
organist, but to the great zeal and strong patron- 
age which Wadhams lent to that department of 
the service. 

The popular Christmas carol, " The Snow lay 
on the Ground," is well known throughout the 
United States. It is not, how r ever, so well known 
that we are indebted for it to Bishop Wadhams. 
He found the verses in some stray newspaper 
which fell into his hands, and was so pleased 
with their simple beauty that he was anxious to 
fit them to some appropriate melody. Father 
Noethen, of the Holy Cross Church, Albany, to 
whom he showed the lines, bethought himself of 
a favorite air of the Pifferari, who come in from 
the Campagna at Christmas time to sing and play 
in the streets of Rome. His memory of the air 
was, however, indistinct, and Mr. Carmody was 
requested to remodel it and adapt it to the 
words. This he did, and the form he gave to it 
is the one now universally used.- The original 
&ir was afterwards procured from Rome, but Mr. 



A Protest. 141 

Carmody's variation is adhered to as far more 
beautiful. 

Father Wadhams was an intelligent man, but 
in our American Church, full of intelligent clergy, 
that cannot be set down as a distinctive personal 
peculiarity. The same thing may be said of 
many other mental qualities of his, most impor- 
tant to prelate or priest, but which cannot be 
justly alleged as peculiar to him. His great 
characteristics all lay in the moral order. He 
was no common man, he was no ordinary priest. 
All those who knew him well will acknowledge 
that there was something in him which marked 
him as eminent. It was a nobility of soul. It 
was a moral beauty of character. It was a con- 
science full of power, which would yield to no 
evil, and before which all evil quailed. Intellect, 
talent, rank, dignity, all sophistry and all subter- 
fuges, lost their force before him when there was 
a call upon his conscience to assert itself. There 
was something magnetic about him, and in this 
moral energy all the magnetism lay. In ordinary 
times, however, when conscience was not put in 
question, he w r as one of the humblest, simplest, 
most unpretending and least self-asserting, most 
yielding, most easily persuaded, of mortals. He 
was not at all disposed to stand upon his own 
dignity or to urge his own opinion upon others. 
On the contrary he was much given to admira- 
tion of other men in whom he saw, or thought he 
saw, remarkable qualities of mind or attractive 



142 Reminiscences, 1850-1872. 

characteristics. He was, moreover, extremely 
reticent in expressing disapprobation of the con- 
duct or character of other men where he had no 
special call to speak or to interfere. My impres- 
sion of him is that he was not a very quick and 
close judge of human nature; that he might 
easily be deceived by those who undertook to do 
it warily, and was disposed to attribute good mo- 
tives to all. When, however, aroused to action 
by some palpable attempt at wrong-doing he was 
a lion and feared no consequences. I give one 
instance. 

A seminary student had carried his irregulari- 
ties so far that he was dismissed from the insti- 
tution. He had friends, however, who were 
anxious to have him take orders. Great influ- 
ence to this end was brought to bear upon the 
bishop. Several persons, on the contrary, ranged 
themselves stoutly in opposition. Wadhams in 
particular was so shocked by the very danger of 
such a thing that he declared his determination, 
if necessary, to protest publicly against it in the 
church should the candidate present himself. No 
measure so strong as this was eventually called 
for. The bishop, being convinced of the young 
man's unfitness, refused to admit him to orders. 
Examples could easily be given where high au- 
thority was made to bend in presence of that 
same lofty and determined conscience. 

There was sometimes a certain appearance of 
antagonism in Wadhams in which his outward 



Preaching. 143 

ways and language did not always correspond with 
the qualities of his heart. He had a directness 
and even bluntness of speech which coming from 
some persons might easily be taken for rudeness. 
His friends, however, knew well that it came 
from the truthfulness and simplicity of his na- 
ture, which made it impossible for him to adopt 
the ways of a courtier by the least evasion of 
truth. At the same time his heart was full of a 
kindly charity which, even in little things, made 
him fearful of giving offence. I will give one or 
two instances. 

On one occasion while he occupied the position 
of rector of the Albany Cathedral a small party 
of friends, mostly laymen, were lingering at his 
room one night after bedtime. He was not fond 
of late hours, and on this occasion was evidently 
drowsy. I saw him pacing up and down the 
room uneasily, and I knew that he was endeav- 
oring to formulate some hint to his friends of his 
anxiety to retire, and without hurting their feel- 
ings. I knew very well what was coming and 
watched for the result. "Gentlemen," he said 
at last, as if a happy expedient had just struck 
him, "I don't know what you are going to do, 
but I am going to bed." All who were present 
knew him well, and no one felt in the least hurt. 

The world will never remember Wadhams as 
an eminent preacher. I am confident, however, 
that in the record of heaven his name will stand 
in the list of true evangelists. The people who 



144 Reminiscences, 1 850-1872. 

listened to him heard from his lips the true word 
of God, delivered in simple language, sometimes 
blunt, sometimes quaint, always unconventional, 
and oftentimes made powerful and impressive by 
the very simplicity of the speaker's style, which 
lent strength to the matter. His was an elo- 
quence which, if it gained nothing from rhetoric, 
never lost anything through being commonplace. 
Not knowing of any published sermons of his, I 
can, unfortunately, give my readers no example 
to illustrate the spiritual power of his preaching. 
I fear it will seem something like caricature to 
confine myself, as I needs must, to its simplicity 
and originality. He never wasted words in the 
endeavor to introduce his subject gracefully or 
conventionally. If the gospel of the day did not 
suit his purpose, he either took his text elsewhere 
or, starting from the gospel of the Sunday, he 
soon landed himself in the field where he pro- 
posed to work. One Sunday morning, the fifth 
after Pentecost, he read the gospel for that day, 
and then began his sermon as follows : 

" It is not unusual to make use of this gospel 
by preaching on the evil of venial sin. I don't 
intend to preach this morning on venial sin. I 
wish to have you all understand that there is a 
sin which, whether venial or not, is something 
very ugly and very mischievous. It's a sin to 
come late to Mass and walk down the broad aisle 
in fine feathers and fluttering ribbons, as if it 
were something highly respectable to disturb 



War limes in Albany. 145 

public worship by coming late. I do not wish 
to be understood as objecting to putting on good 
clothes to come to church with, but I do object 
to coming late to Mass, to disturbing others who 
are praying, and to your making a parade of 
yourselves.'' This is not the form usually pre- 
scribed for an exordium, but it certainly led up 
to the subject in hand and helped to make the 
sermon impressive. 

We wish in these reminiscences to make some 
mention of Father Wadhams in connection with 
the War of the Rebellion, in which he took a 
most lively and serious interest. In April, 1861, 
when Fort Sumter was attacked, Colonel Michael 
K. Bryan was in command of the Twenty-fifth 
Regiment, which left Albany immediately for 
Washington. On the night of April 21st, 1861, 
came the order from Governor Morgan to leave. 
The men, mostly workmen, gathered suddenly at 
the armory at the tolling of the bells, a signal al- 
ready agreed upon, and at eight o'clock were all in 
line. Their wives and children had only time to 
bid them "good-by " at the armory, the hurry not 
allowing all of them to go from their workshops 
to their homes. Most of the soldiers of this regi- 
ment, as well as the colonel and lieutenant-colo- 
nel, were Catholics. John M. Kimball, Esq., a 
prominent lawyer of Albany, volunteered to go 
with them, and received a temporary appoint- 
ment as chaplain. In any case a departure so 
sudden must needs be attended with much con- 
10 



146 Reminiscences, 1850-1872. 

fusion, but in this case there existed great ex- 
citement throughout the city and an apprehension 
of imminent danger. The news of the savage 
assault on a Massachusetts regiment in Balti- 
more as it marched across the city from station 
to station, and telegrams on April 19th and 20th, 
stating that Davis was "within one day's march 
of Washington with an army," and that troops 
must hurry on at once or that city would be lost, 
created a desire in the minds both of Catholic 
soldiers and their families to prepare for the worst 
by a due reception of the sacraments. Father 
Wadhams accordingly offered to accompany the 
troops, so far as might be necessary, to aid in this 
preparation. 

They started that afternoon, crossing the river 
by the ferry and taking the cars on the eastern 
side. Father Wadhams commenced immediately 
hearing confessions in a corner of one of the cars, 
a continual silence being maintained on that car 
until he had finished. Late that night the train, 
a special and slow one, reached Poughkeepsie, 
and the good priest, having finished his work, 
was able to return to Albany. He had found an 
opportunity in the mean time to receive into the 
church Counselor Kimball, baptizing him on the 
train with such water as the drinking-tank con- 
tained. Survivors of the regiment assure me 
that the counselor never officiated as chaplain, 
though often urged by his gay companions to do 
so. He did, however, do most serviceable duty 



War Times in Albany. 147 

as adjutant of the regiment, to which, rank he 
was soon thereafter assigned. 

The death of the gallant Colonel Bryan, at Port 
Hudson, La., was communicated to Father Wad- 
hams in a letter from Dr. O'Leary, surgeon of 
Bryan's regiment, dated at New Orleans June 
1 8th, 1863. What the good priest's sorrow was 
at this intelligence may be in some degree gath- 
ered from the following passage of the letter: 
" He lived about an hour after receiving his 
wounds. He seemed to feel conscious of his ap- 
proaching end and died like one going to sleep. 
I have just arrived in this city with his remains 
and shall send them home at the earliest oppor- 
tunity." He then adds: "A nobler man never 
lived. A braver soldier never wielded a sword. 
A truer Christian never knelt before his Maker." 

Although a strong Unionist of the most de- 
voted type, Father Wadhams was always gentle 
in dealing with soldiers and partisans of the States 
in rebellion. He could not reconcile himself to 
their reasonings, but he comprehended very well 
how much of excusable human nature there was 
in their sentiments. He was often, however, 
much shocked even when his gentle nature urged 
him to keep silence. An Albanian was living in 
one of the southwestern States before the war, 
and was a captain there of a well -drilled com- 
pany of infantry. When the war broke out this 
company was summoned to arms. It seemed to 
him a point of honor, and a duty to the company 



148 Reminiscences ', 1850-1872. 

and to the State in which he for the time being 
resided, to turn out with the rest in the service 
of the Confederacy. After the war he returned 
to the North and resided in Albany. Wadhams 
was surprised one day at hearing it mentioned 
that this gentleman had been a rebel. "You 
don't mean to say," he asked, "that you actually 
fought against us in battle? " "Well, yes," was 
the reply, "in several battles." "But you didn't 
kill any of our brave soldiers, did you?" "I 
can't say, Father, that I did, not exactly; but I 
will tell you the nearest thing to it that I remem- 
ber. One day when I was senior captain in com- 
mand of a regiment, and had my men picketed 
behind a fence, a troop of Federal cavalry passed 
by on the road. I gave the order to fire. The 
consequence was that thirteen saddles in that 
troop were left empty." 

The good Father asked no more questions. He 
was simply shocked and remained silent, fearing 
to say too much if he spoke at all. He felt that 
cruel war bitterly. I often heard him allude to 
empty chairs at farm-houses in the neighborhood 
of his own homestead amid the Adirondacks. 
His nephew Pitt, son of his brother Abraham E. 
Wadhams, was killed in the war at Chancellors- 
ville. 

In 1865 Father Wadhams and his friend, the 
Rev. William Everett, who, as we have seen, 
had been his fellow-student at the Twentieth 
Street Seminary, planned out a journey to be 



Trip to the Holy Land. 149 

"taken together tiirough Europe and to the Holy- 
Land. They met in London and travelled 
through Paris, Venice, Milan, Rome, and Naples 
to Egypt and Syria. In Rome they were pre- 
sented together to His Holiness Pius IX. 

A more earnest man than Bishop Wadhams 
can scarcely be imagined. To his mind duty 
always rose up above every other consideration. 
" Faithful and true " were written upon his fore- 
head, where all men could read the inscription ; 
but yet he was light-hearted, joyous, and easily 
amused, while his laughter was always hearty 
and perfectly contagious. Father William Ever- 
ett, on the contrary, his warm and intimate friend, 
was always as grave and serious in his manner 
as he was earnest in his soul. This made them 
sometimes seem strangely mated, the one taking 
hearty delight in things which the other regarded 
as trifling. In the course of their journey through 
Europe Wadhams was interested in almost every- 
thing new or strange which presented itself to 
his eye, while Everett, who had a great taste for 
Christian archaeology, was interested in little else 
than sacred or historical things. When passing 
along one of the streets of Turin the former was 
attracted by an exhibition of Punchinello, and 
stopped to enjoy it. This mortified Father Ever- 
ett, who thought it an unseemly thing for clergy- 
men to take interest in a diversion of such a 
nature. "Do come on, " said he; " this is scan- 
dalous/' "Why, no," said Wadhams, "it's capi- 



150 Reminiscences, iSjo-iS/2. 

tal! " And lie could not be induced to move on. 
In this he was unexpectedly sustained by two 
passers-by, old friends of his from Albany, Chan- 
cellor Pruyn and his lady, who also stopped to 
see the show. And thus Everett was compelled 
to become an unwilling" spectator. The two 
friends prosecuted their journey in company until 
they reached the Holy Land, which to Everett 
had always been the main attraction and the chief 
object of his trip. An account of this visit and 
of a special pilgrimage to Bethlehem, contributed 
by Everett himself to The Catholic World for 1868, 
can be found in the January number for that year. 
They arrived at Jerusalem in the evening of 
January 30th, 1866, and were conducted through 
the darkness, dusty and weary, to the Franciscan 
hospice. On entering the sitting-room their first 
surprise was a Troy stove, not calculated cer- 
tainly to nurse sacred or archaeological sentiment 
in the mind of a student like Everett. There 
was something else in the apartment quite as 
American as the Troy heater. It was the figure 
of a tall, lank man with his hat on his head, his 
feet projecting above the stove, and smoking a 
cigar. Removing his cigar, but not either hat 
or boots, the gentleman turned his head to gaze 
at the new-comers. They were unmistakably 
countrymen of his own. "Halloo!" said he, 
"when did you arrive in Jerusalem? " " We've 
just come," they replied. "Oh! have you?" 
said he. "Well then, let me tell you, you've 



Trip to the Holy Land. 151 

come to one of the most infernal dirty holes that 
ever you saw! " The incongruity of such a wel- 
come to the Holy Land struck Wadhams' sense 
of the ridiculous, but to the more solemn enthu- 
siasm of his companion such words and the whole 
scene were a profanation from the shock of which 
it was not easy to recover. 

Their devotion was less disturbed on a visit to 
Bethlehem, which they made on foot, a distance 
of about six miles. Here was no Troy stove, 
nor irreverent Yankee, nor stove-pipe hat, nor 
profane cigar. They stood under an olive-tree 
in front of the holy grotto which had served as 
a shelter to the shepherds when watching their 
flocks by night. Uncovering their heads de- 
voutly, they chanted the " Gloria in Excelsis " with 
a recollection more tranquil and a joy that could 
scarcely have been surpassed by that of the shep- 
herds themselves. Wadhams' stay in Jerusalem 
was short, only a fortnight; but this was not 
enough to satisfy an archaeological pilgrim like 
Everett, who remained much longer. When re* 
turning to the United States the latter brought 
back many choice reminiscences of the Holy 
Land, books, maps, illustrations, charts, and plans 
in relief, rarely to be met with. These were for a 
long time a source of interest and pleasure to 
friends of a like taste when, in New York, they 
visited the rectory of Nativity Church. 

Father Wadhams' large heart, less interested 
in sacred scholarship, was nevertheless equally 



152 Remi?iiscences, 1850-187 2. 

full of devotion, and full also of the thought of 
friends. Every beautiful object that met his eye 
struck him as an appropriate present for some 
friend at home. He brought back with him a 
large extra trunk filled with these souvenirs, col- 
lected from various places. If it were possible 
for me to remember the names of all the parties 
whom he had thus specially borne in mind when 
abroad and to whom he brought back some appro- 
priate gift, it would seem almost incredible. His 
brethren of the clergy, members of the cathedral 
congregation and of St. Mary's, singers in the 
choir, sacristan, altar-boys, and all the domestics of 
the house, a very multitude, had something in that 
trunk to show that they had been remembered. 
How he managed without the help of saddle-bags 
to carry so many objects of devotion, rosaries, 
crucifixes, medals, images, etc., into the presence 
of the Holy Father to be specially blessed and 
indulgenced by him, is a wonder which I cannot 
explain. 

There are some men who will never allow that 
they have changed their opinions. Father Wad- 
hams was not one of this kind. It cost him very 
little to say : " I used to think so, but I was mis- 
taken/* He was always equally ready to ac- 
knowledge any moral wrong or defect in what he 
himself had done. On one occasion, when rector 
of the Albany Cathedral, the house was disturbed 
at night by an intoxicated man who would not 
leave when ordered away, but continued to ring 



Miscellaneous Anecdotes. 153 

the bell and pound at the door. He claimed that 
his wife was sick and that the priest must come 
immediately, but his answers to inquiries showed 
that his senses were very much confused. Being 
compelled to rise and dress himself in order to 
quiet the disturbance, Father Wadhams de- 
scended to the hall with hat, overcoat, and cane. 
Opening the front door, he seized the fellow by 
his collar, dragged him down the steps and along 
the pavement as far as the first corner, thrashing 
him in the mean time with his cane. The man 
cried out lustily. A policeman coming up and 
seeing what was the matter said, "Can I help 
you any, Father? " "No," was the answer, "I 
can dispose of this job myself." Leaving his 
prisoner, however, at the corner Father Wad- 
hams did not venture to return to the house 
without first making sure of the condition of the 
woman reported as sick. He found her, as he 
had supposed, in no need of a priest and full 
of regret at the trouble which her husband had 
caused. "I am glad to know," she said, "that 
you gave him a good beating. He deserved it 
well. The longer the marks of your cane stay 
on his back the better. It may bring the grace 
of God down on his foolish head to remember 
the holy hands that did it."' Father Wadhams 
always regretted this night's adventure. When 
some of his household sought to justify what had 
been done, saying that the fellow had deserved 
it richly, he said; "No, that will not answer. I 



154 Reminiscences, 1850-1872. 

have done wrong. It was far more important 
for me to control my own temper than to chastise 
a turbulent drunkard." 

Our reminiscences would be like Italy with 
Rome left out if we were to say nothing of that 
charity which was the ruling spirit of Father 
Wadhams. He maintained it with a singular 
forgetfulness of himself. As a man he lived for 
others. As a friend he never forgot the claims of 
friendship. As a Christian he always saw Christ in 
the pleading faces of the poor. As a minister of 
Christ he never forgot that great ruling principle, 
which he always taught and always followed 
himself, that "the priest is for the people, not 
the people for the priest." His charity was al- 
ways toned and colored by that guilelessness 
which so peculiarly characterized him. His own 
simplicity and singleness of heart made him un- 
suspicious of others. As a natural consequence 
he was easily imposed upon by strangers, taking 
for granted that others were as sincere as him- 
self. What we mean, then, will be easily un- 
derstood when we say that he carried charity to 
a fault. If the honest poor could count upon his 
generosity, others less honest could often play 
upon his simplicity. During his absence in Eu- 
rope in 1865 I occupied his place temporarily as 
rector at the Albany Cathedral. I found that by 
his arrangement the money received in the poor- 
boxes was divided every week by the sacristan 
among a number of poor persons. Having some 




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Miscellaneous Anecdotes. 155 

suspicion in regard to the wise application of this 
money, I got a list of these people, which I sub- 
mitted to the St. Vincent de Paul Society, asking 
them to report what they knew or could learn of 
the character of these pensioners, The report 
was unfavorable to the whole list. Either they 
were quite capable of taking care of themselves, 
or could not safely be trusted with money. They 
were, therefore, all dropped from the list. Only 
one, an old man, appealed from the sacristan to 
me. Father Wadhams, he said, had always al- 
lowed him his weekly dole of twenty-five cents, 
and why should it be kept from him now? I 
answered that it was known to me that he had 
enough to live upon without it. " Well," he re- 
plied, "that's partly true. It's not a necessity, 
but it was a convenience. It was just enough to 
supply me with tobacco." It would be needless 
to enlarge upon the great number of worthier 
objects of charity to whom living was made easier 
and happier by the same bountiful hand. 

What Shakespeare makes Othello say of him- 
self may, nevertheless, be well applied to the 
open-hearted and guileless subject of these mem- 
oirs. He was — 

"One not easily jealous, but being wrought, 
Perplexed in the extreme." 

Duplicity, fraud, treachery, once detected in one 
to whom he had given his confidence, there came 
a shock from which he could not easily recover and 



156 Reminiscences, 1850-1872. 

give a second confidence. He and I had both 
formed a very favorable opinion of a priest of the 
diocese, chiefly derived from a certain appearance 
of modesty and ecclesiastical dignity which we saw 
in him. Father Wadhams, from holding the ad- 
ministration of the diocese for a while during the 
bishop's absence, was brought to know of many 
things in the conduct of this man, some of which 
showed moral weakness only, but other things 
hypocrisy, treachery, and a fraudulent avarice. 
Wadhams brought him to bay and hunted him 
out of the diocese with an inflexibility and rapid- 
ity of action which astonished me. 

He was once visited by a newspaper reporter, 
who did not announce himself as such, but came 
to the house in the character of a fellow-citizen 
who was anxious to make his acquaintance. He 
talked so pleasantly and cheerfully that Wadhams 
was highly entertained, and talked very freely in 
return. He was much disconcerted shortly after 
on finding the conversation reported in a daily 
newspaper, containing many things not well 
adapted for publication. Before his indignation 
had time to cool the visitor most unwisely called 
again. A rapid retreat through the front door 
became necessary, and terminated the inter- 
course. I do not remember the precise words 
which my friend used on this occasion, but they 
were perfectly intelligible and brief. In sub- 
stance they were like those of Lady Macbeth 
when dismissing her guests from the banquet 



Miscellaneous Anecdotes. 157 

table : " Stand not upon the order of your going, 
but go at once ! " 

The purity of Father Wadhams* character 
amounted to a degree of delicacy which is rare 
even among the virtuous. I recall the modesty 
which pervaded his manners and language as 
something truly angelic. In all my reminiscences 
of him, which reach through so man)^ years of 
intimacy, embracing often circles where the most 
free and joyous conversation abounded, I never 
heard a word from his lips suggestive even of 
that stultiloquium so strongly condemned by the 
Apostle Paul, and so especially unworthy of the 
lips of a priest. It was so before he became a 
Catholic, it was so before my acquaintance with 
him began. It was so from his boyhood up. No 
one that ever knew him well can doubt that his 
very soul was virginal. An old friend and school- 
companion of his gives his testimony to this fea- 
ture of his character in the following words: 

"During his whole college life, I, who knew 
him better than any other human being all that 
time could know him, know that he never spoke 
one impure word or said anything that a man 
would be ashamed to repeat in the presence of 
his mother, sister, or niece. I am to-day a better 
man than I should have been had I not been in- 
timate with Wadhams. ,, 

I might easily suppose this trait to be due to a 
certain excellence of nature. Perhaps it was. 
The friend just cited, however, seems to regard 



158 Reminiscences, 1850-1872. 

it as a gift of grace, for he says : " He was truly 
a devout man even from youth up." 

If in these reminiscences my main purpose has 
been successful, I have shown that Wadhams 
was in no sense an ordinary man. I do not mean 
to assert. that all his talents and qualities of heart 
were above mediocrity. I mean only that he 
was in no way commonplace, neither in thought 
nor manner nor language. I attribute this to the 
fact that he was too truthful and simple-hearted 
to borrow nonsense from any source, however 
conventional or popular the nonsense might be. 

Lacordaire was accustomed to say: " Je naime 
pas les lieitx communs" I don't remember ever 
to have heard Father Wadhams say this. It was 
true of him all the same. His ways, thoughts, 
and feelings were all his own, all unborrowed. 
He was, therefore, in no sense a commonplace 
man. 



Cbapter D1T1L 

Wafcbams becomes ^Sisbop of ©Gfcensburg*— 1bfs Xife 
anD Xabors in tbe IRew JDioceBe— Ibfs Sufferings 
anD SuDDen Cure.— trials.— Ibis 3Last Wlnees and 
©eatb. 

1872-1891. 

|EAR the close of the year 1871 it had be- 
come evident that a division of the dio- 
cese of Albany was called for. The Right 
Rev. John J. Conroy assembled the Councilors of 
the diocese, and represented to them that such 
was the fact. He asked them to advise with him 
as to the character and qualities of the man who 
should be recommended to the Holy See for the 
new diocese, and also as to what place should be 
selected as the proper seat or see for the residence 
of the new bishop. The diocese itself was to 
consist of the Adirondack region, including the 
plains which border this region on the north and 
west. Only two towns sufficiently populous for 
this purpose could be considered as sufficiently 
central. The one was Plattsburgh, on Lake 
Champlain, and the other Ogdensburg, in the 
northwest at the point where the Oswegatchie 
River connects with the Saint Lawrence. The 

159 



i6o Reminiscejiccs, 1872-1891. 

sentiments of the council were very nearly equally 
divided as to the location of the see. 

A bishop's council had no claim at that time to 
make a nomination, nor was any name suggested. 
The principal point on which the opinion of the 
council was desired was the following, namely : 
What should be the nationality of the man to be 
recommended? This was a point of no little im- 
portance, for the English language was by no 
means universal in Northern New York, espe- 
cially among Catholics. Many Canadians had 
settled there, and their number was constantly 
increasing. The opinion nearly, if not quite 
unanimous, was that the new bishop should un- 
derstand French, but that his native and most 
familiar tongue should be English. 

Ogdensburg was designated by the authorities 
at Rome as the seat of the new see, and the name 
of the new bishop was communicated to Father 
Wadhams by Archbishop McCloskey in the fol- 
lowing note : 

"New York, February 25th, 1872. 
" Right Rev. dear Sir ■ I am instructed by 
the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda to make 
known to you the fact that you have been ap- 
pointed by the Holy Father to the new see of 
Ogdensburg. The apostolic letter and other doc- 
uments were in course of preparation, and will 
be expedited with as little delay as possible. My 
secretary, Dr. McNeirny, who will present you 



Wadhams a Bishop. 161 

this, has been appointed coadjutor bishop of Dr. 
Conroy. Permit me to present you my most sin- 
cere congratulations as well as my best wishes and 
regards. Commending myself to your prayers, 

" I remain, monsignor, 
" Very truly your friend and brother in Christ, 
"John, Abp. of New York." 

The bulls arrived in due course of time, and 
the bishop-elect prepared for his consecration. 

The Rev. Edgar P. Wadhams was consecrated 
bishop by Archbishop McCloskey (the assistant 
consecrators being Bishops De Goesbriand, of 
Burlington, and Williams, of Boston) on the fifth 
day of May, 1872, at the Albany Cathedral, amid 
a throng of spectators. Many of these were old 
friends — bishops, priests, and laymen — who had 
come from a distance to witness this ceremony. 
The great multitude, however, were citizens of 
Albany, who knew and loved him well. 

Among these was an old friend and comrade 
who had been selected by the bishop-elect to 
preach at his consecration. He struck a key- 
note on that occasion when, before concluding 
his sermon, he said: 

" A friend is about to say Farewell. Thirty 
years ago, when my eyes were brighter and my 
footsteps lighter, I entered the halls of a well- 
known seminary in the city of New York. Com- 
ing there as a perfect stranger, I found myself 
in a new world and surrounded by strange faces. 
11 



1 62 Reminiscences, 1872-1891. 

With one face, however, I soon became familiar; 
and ever since, through a checkered and eventful 
life, at almost every winding of my pathway that 
same kind face has met me, cheered me, and 
helped to lighten lip the road before me. From 
that day until this morning, when you have seen 
him kneeling to receive the consecrating oils, 
thirty changeful winters have passed over his 
head, but in him I see no shadow of change. It 
must be that great development has taken place in 
many respects ; it must be that secret graces have 
been accumulating ; but I see no change in char- 
acter. Such as he was, so is he now; so, doubt- 
less, will he always be. . . . 

" I have been familiar with Edgar Wadhams 
in youth and in riper manhood. I have seen him 
in the pursuits of his vocation, busy in the affairs 
of life, and mingling among men. I have seen 
him at home among his native Adirondacks, sur- 
rounded by the same faces that beamed upon his 
childhood. And here as well as there, and-every- 
where, the testimony of all that ever knew him 
is the same, 'Faithful and True, ' I have seen him 
in every occupation and mood of mind — in labor, 
in study, in prayer, in the hour of light-hearted 
gayety, in sorrow and in joy, groping in the midst 
of doubt and perplexity, or walking free again in 
the light of a clear path. These are the natural 
vicissitudes of life. They come and go; they 
are themselves subject to change, but they bring 
no change to a steadfast soul like his. They 



His Consecration. 163 

pass over and leave it, as the clouds float over 
the face of the constant moon, and leave her as 
before, still travelling on her heavenly track — 
'Faithful and True.'' So has he always been in 
all the relations of life — as son, brother, friend, 
Christian, pastor; at his own fireside, at the sick- 
bed, at the altar; and who doubts that in the 
episcopate, to which God has now called him, he 
will not be found the same — 'Faithful and True ' 
to the end ? . . . 

"Go forth, then, man of God, where God and 
duty call thee! Be thou the Apostle of the 
American Highlands, and of that broad and 
noble plain whose borders are a majestic lake, a 
mighty river, an inland ocean, and the primeval 
mountains. Go plant the cross of Christ among 
thy native hills ; unfurl the Catholic banner on 
the banks of the St. Lawrence and on the shores 
of Ontario and Lake Champlain ; and there where 
early missionaries, sighing out their holy lives 
and writing their names in blood, could only save 
a few scattered souls, do thou in happier times 
found churches, and convents, and schools ! Go, 
and God's richest blessings go with thee! But 
be sure of this : wherever thou goest and what- 
ever new friends may gather around thee, in the 
broad field of thy new mission thou wilt find 
none to love thee better, none truer, than those 
thou leavest now in tears and sadness behind 
thee!" 

Some of Bishop Wadhams' familiar friends in 



164 Re??iiniscences, 1872-1891. 

Albany were anxious to retain a photograph of 
him before he left for his new scene of labor, 
and wished that this picture should represent 
him in his character of bishop. He very readily 
consented, and I was delegated to go with him 
to the photographer. Previous photographs had 
proved to be more realistic than artistic, present- 
ing him in a dress somewhat awry ; wearing, for 
example, a biretta with a vicious inclination 
toward one or the other eye. His friends wished 
me, therefore, to accompany him and keep him 
in good artistic shape. This was really a neces- 
sary precaution. He was very fond of solemni- 
ties and religious ceremonies of the highest order. 
He loved to see rich vestments. All this, how- 
ever, was for the honor of God and to make divine 
worship impressive. Outside of the church and 
moving in the world he concerned himself very 
little about his personal appearance. He pos- 
sessed a native dignity peculiarly his own ; but 
he was not at all aware of it and let it take care 
of itself. When arrived at the photographer's 
gallery he allowed me to place him and pose him 
at discretion. His humility and simplicity of 
heart were proof against all temptations, and 
whatever his other friends may have thought of 
the result, he himself was, as usual, perfectly 
satisfied with the photograph. It would have 
been hard, indeed, for us all if we could have 
retained nothing of him in Albany except what 
a photographer's art can supply, but the city is 



Coadjuting. 165 

still full of more truthful reminiscences which 
cannot easily be obliterated. 

We must now follow the new bishop to his see. 
"It was my pleasure," said Bishop McQuaid in 
his funeral sermon on Bishop Wadhams, "and 
my honor to come with him to this infant church 
of Ogdensburg, just born into the rank of an 
episcopal city. I remember well that day — the 
joy of priests and people, and the welcome every 
one gave him. ,, 

The first care of a bishop in taking possession 
of a newly established see is to arrange a domicile 
for himself and a cathedral church. But here 
Bishop Wadhams encountered at once an embar- 
rassment which only a gentleness of heart and a 
Christian charity like his would have disposed of 
as he did. 

At the time of his appointment to the See of 
Ogdensburg the charge of the church and the 
congregation there was in the hands of an old 
and excellent priest, who had devoted himself to 
it and had done the best he could to bring it to a 
flourishing condition. The old priest occupied, 
of course, the parish house adjoining, and it 
never occurred to his mind that it would be nec- 
essary to hand over either church or rectory to 
the new bishop, or to take any subordinate place 
under him. The good father announced the bish- 
op's arrival to his people as follows (of course I 
can only give the substance of his words) : " You 
all know, my dear brethren," he said, "that for 



1 66 Re?niniscences, 187 2-1 £pi. 

many long years I have desired and asked for 
and prayed for a coadjutor. God knows I needed 
help, but could not get it. At last a coadjutor 
has arrived and now things will go on better/* 
The new bishop scrupled to dislodge the good 
old man, and preferred for the moment to take 
another house for himself, although no other 
could be found convenient to the church. He 
said Mass on week-days at a private oratory in 
the new house, officiating at the church only on 
Sundays and holidays. He satisfied himself for 
the time with the supervision of the general af- 
fairs of the diocese, trusting that local matters at 
Ogdensburg would soon arrange themselves little 
by little and naturally. They did not, however, 
so arrange themselves. The former incumbent 
showed no inclination to yield up any part of 
his responsibilities or allow the bishop to do any- 
thing but "coadjute." Things went on in this 
way for a long while, causing the bishop great 
uneasiness and inconvenience. On his visiting 
me one day at St. Mary's, Albany, I expressed 
my wonder that he should allow things to go on 
in this way, when it would be so easy for him to 
set them right and at once. "Yes/' he replied, 
" so it would be, and if he were a different sort of 
man I would not hesitate for a moment; but just 
look at the thing as it is. He is a good man, he 
is a faithful priest ; the building up of that con- 
gregation has been the work of his life ; it would 
break the poor old man's heart to dislodge him; 



Characteristic Anecdotes. 167 

and even if he were to stay there and work in 
the parish under me, it would be a constant and 
bitter grief to him to see me make the changes 
which I should think necessary in the church and 
in the house, and to be obliged to help me in 
making those changes. Walworth, I can't do it 
with a good conscience. I cannot trample out 
that good man's life. I must let things go on as 
they are until God opens for me a good oppor- 
tunity to interfere." And he kept steadfastly to 
this resolution. 

"I remember well," said Bishop McQuaid in 
the funeral sermon already quoted, " I remember 
well the poverty in which he found his diocese, 
and the poverty of the city of Ogdensburg. I 
remember this and other occasions when he un- 
burdened his soul to me and told me of his diffi- 
culties, and spoke of his diocese and his people, 
and their poverty. He spoke of their being 
scattered over this vast territory, and I listened 
with feeling and attention to him. With the 
kindness of a child, he said how he would lead 
the way, how he was going to change the char- 
acter of his city and church; and when I looked 
at the old church, I wondered how the ingenuity 
of man could turn it into anything that would 
make it presentable as a cathedral. . . . I listened 
to him as he spoke of those woods and the people 
who were scattered through them, whom he said 
should belong to God's church, and with the ut- 
most joy told me that they were opening up the 



1 68 Reminiscences i iSj2~i8^i. 

North Woods ; they were opening railroads into 
them, etc. Civilization was making rapid strides 
into the wilderness. . . ." 

The separate house he selected for his own 
residence at the time of his arrival, the only one 
he could find, was located at a distance from the 
church. It was a corner house, sufficiently am- 
ple, but he could only obtain possession of a part 
of it. He was soon obliged to remove to a plain 
frame house near by. Later on he found means 
to return to his first location, purchasing the 
whole lot and enlarging the building. Here he 
remained until his death. This residence is a 
fine, well-built, and solid edifice, but its furniture 
was very plain and simple, and cost the bishop 
very little. The two-ply ingrain carpet which 
he put down on his first arrival was still there 
when he died nineteen years later. To his 
own mind, however, everything was perfectly 
elegant. Although actually poor, he always 
seemed to feel himself quite rich, and no one 
could be more hospitable. The priests who 
came to him from different parts of his diocese 
always found a plate at his table, and a room to 
lodge in. 

Although to a man who objected to all luxury, 
and required so little for his own comfort, the 
sense of personal poverty was something un- 
known, yet he had a clear perception of the pov- 
erty of his diocese, and was often made to feel it 
keenly, Once after his appointment and before 



Characteristic Anecdotes. 169 

his consecration, while walking with Professor 
Carmody on the Kenwood road, he opened his 
mind to his friend after this manner : 

" I know, Carmody, the task I have before me. 
I know that country well. The population is 
poor and scattered. It is a land of small settle- 
ments and long distances. The people cannot 
be reached by railways or stage-coaches. Even 
good wagon -roads are few. But I'll tell you what 
I mean to do. I shall get a good pony that will 
carry me anywhere ; and you take my word for 
it, it will not be long before I visit every family ; 
and every man and woman, barefooted boy, and 
yellow-headed girl in my diocese will know r me. 
Yes, sir-ee! ,? 

I have heard it said, and it may be true, that 
Bishop Wadhams was not originally designated 
for Ogdensburg, but for another diocese; and 
that the appointment which he actually received 
was owing to the mistake of a clerk at Rome, 
who filled up a blank with his name where an- 
other name should have been entered. However 
this may be, it is certain that he had some char- 
acteristics which fitted him peculiarly for a bish- 
opric among the Adirondacks. He was strong, 
healthy, and inured to physical fatigue. He was 
by nature and by training a child of the woods 
and mountains, the snows and floods. This made 
him well pleased with the location of his new 
field of labor. A familiar associate and co-laborer 
of Wadhams at the Albany Cathedral brings out 



170 Reminiscences, iS/2-iSpi. 

this thought very happily in a sermon preached 
at his "month's mind: " 

" At the time of his appointment to Ogdens- 
burg," said Bishop Ludden, of Syracuse, "I was 
present when some person asked him whether 
he would accept or not. 'How can you/ they 
said to him, 'leave this great centre of life and 
go away to that barren and trackless region ? ' 
His answer was: A My dear friends, that is my 
native air ; I love * those Adirondacks — I love 
those mountains, those rivers and streams; I 
love all there is in that territory. I love to hear 
the sawmills : they are music to my ears. Why, 
I was brought up on saw-logs ! ' " 

And so he was. I myself have seen him walk- 
ing over a fleet of logs that lay moored in a mill- 
dam. But although they dipped and turned 
under his feet, he trod among them as fearless 
and secure as if he were making his way along 
a sidewalk. It was his own impression that he 
knew every tree in the North Woods and could 
tell its name. When in the forest he walked like 
a master in his own house, and nature seemed to 
recognize him as such. 

" He was the heart of all the scene ; 
On him the sun looked more serene ; 
To hill and cloud his face was known, 
It seemed the likeness of their own ; 
They knew by secret sympathy 
The public child of earth and sky. ' ' 

If Wadharns was a true child of nature, nature 



Characteristic Anecdotes. 171 

had not given to this child a realistic head or a 
realistic heart. No one can say of him, 

" A primrose by the river's brim 

A simple primrose was to him, 

And nothing more." 

Nature talked to him like a mother, and he 
responded to her like an eager child. If the 
Angelus bell is now heard in so many parts of 
the North Woods it is due to him. I have al- 
ready spoken of him as a musician. I don't re- 
member that I have mentioned how fond he was 
of bell-music. To this predilection of his is due 
the beautiful chime of bells in the cathedral 
tower at Albany. It was at one time a fond hope 
of his to introduce a true system of chiming, 
something quite different from the prevailing 
practice of banging out hymn-tunes on reluctant 
bells. He purchased rare books on bell-music, 
and loved to talk about peals, bobs, triple-bobs, 
and bob-majors. To this same fondness for bells 
is due also the fact that the region of the North 
Woods, and the level belt of land which so nearly 
surrounds them, has been made vocal thrice in 
the day with the sound of the Angelus. 

He was on a visit one day to a parish among 
the mountains where the prospect was very fine 
but the grazing very poor. The worthy incum- 
bent found it hard to keep the church in 
repair, and to keep either church or house warm 
during the long and cold winters. He did it 



172 Reminiscences, iS/2-i<9pi. 

indeed, but he had to work hard for it. The 
bishop said to him : " My dear father, you have 
a bell on your church, but I don't hear the An- 
gelus ring/' "No, bishop," the priest replied, 
"that's so; but in truth we are too poor/' 
"What! " said the bishop, "too poor to ring the 
Angelus? " "Yes; I can't do it myself with any 
regularity, and there is no one here who can 
afford to do it without being paid. You see I 
am obliged to be my own sacristan, and when I 
am absent my cook takes charge of the church ; 
but she has already all the work she wants to 
do." "Call her here," said the bishop. The 
woman soon presented herself. "Margaret," 
said the bishop, "have you got so much to do 
that you could not ring the Angelus three times 
every day? " " I could, my lord, and will, if you 
wish it." " You are the right sort of girl for me ! 
Do it then, and keep it up, and you shall have 
two dollars a month extra." 

Some time afterwards this priest came to Og- 
densburg on parochial business, and said to the 
bishop in course of conversation : " I suppose you 
remember my cook, Margaret? She prays for 
you every day since your last visit to us." 
"Good! " said the bishop, "and does she get the 
two dollars extra?" "Indeed she does," was 
the reply; "she don't forget that." "And does 
she keep the bell going everyday?" "Indeed 
she does; that's something I don't forget." 
" Good for both of you ! " said the bishop, slap- 



Characteristic Anecdotes. 173 

ping his broad hand on the table. "Now I'm 
satisfied." "Yes," said the priest, "but Mar- 
garet is not entirely satisfied. She wants a pho- 
tograph of yourself, with your autograph on the 
back of it, and she asked me to tell you that she 
don't want one of the little things that get 
mislaid, but she wants a large-sized cabinet." 
"Glory! Alleluia!" said the bishop, starting to 
his feet and clapping his hands together. " She 
shall have one as big as the side of a house, if 
she wants it! But let her keep that bell going." 
It may easily be imagined, even by those who 
do not know the fact statistically, that the dio- 
cese of Ogdensburg made progress during the 
nineteen years of Bishop Wadhams' episcopate. 
New parishes were formed, new churches built, 
schools were established, priests were added to 
the clergy list, convents were founded, and the 
number of Catholic population increased. In a 
country like ours all these things take place natu- 
rally, no matter who the bishop may be. Cath- 
olics and Catholic institutions augment neces- 
sarily with the growth of the country. All this 
increase cannot be set down as a development of 
organic life. Much of it is only concretionary. 
Much of it even remains a mere drift or detritus. 
To turn all this swelling tide of life to good ac- 
count, to the glory of God and the salvation of 
men, requires hard and constant missionary labor, 
the tribute of faithful and earnest hearts. Bishop 
Wadhams looked with joy upon the growth and 



1 74 Reminiscences, 1872-1891. 

improvement in his diocese, but he was too truth- 
ful and too humble to take all the credit of it to 
himself, and remain unmindful that the largest 
part of this was the work of his clergy, and he 
was always careful to give the principal credit of 
it to them and others who labored with them. 

In July, 1890, when on a visitation to Port 
Henry, he was greeted with a complimentary 
address by the sodalities of St. Patrick's parish. 
In this address much was said of the growth of 
the diocese under his administration, which was 
attributed simply to his personal zeal and labor. 
The growth of the diocese was a thought in which 
the good bishop took great delight. The tribute 
to himself did not please him so well. After 
complimenting the address as something very 
beautiful and very grateful to his feelings, he 
said: 

"You speak of the diocese. No doubt you 
know a great many things about the diocese. 
There may be some things, however, that you 
do not know. I can give you some statistics. I 
found the diocese with forty priests, and now 
there are seventy-six. I found fifteen, perhaps 
twenty — no more — religious women in the dio- 
cese. Now there are considerably over a hun- 
dred teaching, some seven or eight employed in 
our orphan asylum and hospital in Ogdensburg 
as a beginning — but all the rest, you may say, 
teaching. What you attribute to me, however, 
must be passed over to the credit of the priests 



Characteristic Anecdotes. 175 

of the diocese, of each one of them. It reflects 
to the credit of the religious orders — the religious 
men, the sisters. It reflects to the credit of the 
laity ; of young women like you, the Children of 
Mary, members of the Rosary Society and other 
Sodalists ; married women also, and married men, 
all full of devotion, all working together for the 
poor, for the church, in union and charity with 
each other and in unity with the Vicar of Christ. 
That's what makes things grow! " 

That same open, unmasked, guileless charac- 
ter which had endeared Bishop Wadhams to the 
people of Albany drew also all hearts to him in 
Ogdensburg. A movement was set on foot there 
by his fellow-citizens to celebrate the eighteenth 
anniversary of his consecration by a public ova- 
tion. It was well known that the humble prelate 
was as little fond of ovations as he was of pres- 
ents, and they would gladly have made it "a 
surprise party/' but it was not easy in such a 
town to take him by surprise. It was necessary 
to secure his consent. A committee was there- 
fore appointed to wait on him and tender him a 
public banquet. The bishop was embarrassed. 
His heart was as genial as it was humble. And 
then, again, there is never more danger of giving 
offence than when kindness is not met cordially. 
He got out of the embarrassment in this way. 
"I see, I see," he said. "What you propose is 
an anniversary banquet. Thank you ; thank you. 
That would be glorious. You shall have it. 



176 Reminiscences, iS/2-iSpi. 

You will come to my house on the fifth, all of 
you — the more the merrier — and we will have 
a big supper. I will provide the entertain- 
ment. Leave that to me," And so it was done, 
the bishop taking all the expense on himself. 
One of the Protestant gentlemen present caused ' 
much merriment by reporting to the bishop the 
remark of a beggar whom he had found perched 
on the steps at the entrance. "Isn't it a fine 
thing to be a bishop, sir!" said he. The bishop 
enjoyed this as a capital joke, and it is needless 
to say that the beggar lost nothing by it. 

This is nearly the old familiar story of the 
Irishman who said, as he leaned upon his spade: 
" Laboring work is not that bad after all ; but for 
a nate, dacent, aisy job give me a bishop !" 

The good citizens of Ogdensburg, who had 
plotted this feast as an honor to a man they ad- 
mired, were not disposed to be outwitted after 
this sort. They therefore got up among them- 
selves a purse to defray the expense and sent it 
to the bishop. The bishop was surprised, but 
not outwitted. His delicacy would not allow him 
to send the purse back. He saved, however, his 
personal independence and maintained his known 
aversion to public honors and to receiving costly 
presents for his own use, by hastening to apply 
the contents of this purse to the decoration of 
his cathedral. The handsome draperies, red and 
gold, which were then placed in the sanctuary, 
still hang there, bearing witness how well the 



Characteristic Anecdotes. 177 

good bishop understood the danger of those 
public flatteries called testimonials, the natural 
influence of which is to poison the heart and 
bind the hands of the recipient. Father Conroy 
not long after, taking advantage of the bishop's 
absence, pointed to these decorations from the 
pulpit and said to the people : " It is like every- 
thing he does, what is his is ours." 

Perhaps no better place can be found to intro- 
duce an anecdote which illustrates a certain moral 
majesty which often invested the person of Bishop 
Wadhams, and which was sometimes awakened 
by the very sound of his voice. A burglar once 
broke into his house after midnight when the 
household were all asleep. He entered the 
bishop's room, whose slumber was not so deep as 
to prevent his awaking. 

" Who is that?" said he in a gentle voice. " Is 
it you, Father Byrnes?" naming one of the house- 
hold who was ill at the time.- There was no an- 
swer. The bishop then demanded more sternly, 
"Who is that, I say?" "I am a burglar," was 
the unexpected reply. "Oh, you are a burglar, 
are you?" said the bishop, quietly. "How did 
you get into the house?" 

"By the back door." 

" By the back door, eh ! Well, that's the wrong 
door to come into a bishop's house by. Do you 
know you are in a bishop's bedchamber now?" 
(No answer.) " Stay where you are for the pres- 
ent. I want to have a little talk with you." 
12 



178 Reminiscences, fS > /2-i£pi. 

The bishop then proceeded to dress himself 
partially, after which he struck a light. Then, 
with the candle in his hand, he proceeded to in- 
spect the person of the burglar, who stood over- 
awed and trembling before him . Perceiving that 
the man was barefooted, the bishop inquired, 
"Where are your shoes?" 

" I left them at the door when I entered. ,, 

"Well, then, come downstairs with me and 
show me where you left them." The shoes 
• were found standing inside of the back door, as 
t<he burglar had reported. 

"Now then," said the bishop, "sit down on 
that chair and put on your shoes." The burglar 
did as he was ordered and then, all abashed, 
turned to leave the house by the same way that 
he had entered, but the bishop held him back. 

"No, sir," he said. "I can't allow strangers 
to leave this house by the back door. Come 
with me." The burglar followed him to the 
front door, which the bishop unlocked and 
opened. 

" One word more, my friend, " he said. " Have 
you taken anything belonging to this house?" 
The burglar showed him his empty hands. 

" Have you put nothing in your pocket?" 

" Nothing, bishop, nothing — so help me 
God!" 

"Well, good-night, my friend! But see here. 
The next time you come to visit me, come to this 
door and ring the bell." 



Characteristic Anecdotes. 179 

The strange man disappeared in the darkness 
and was never seen in the neighborhood again. 

I give the following incident to show certain 
traits in the character of Bishop Wadhams which, 
if not of the highest consequence, were very no- 
ticeable and will remain imprinted in the mem- 
ory of those who knew him. It shows especially 
the warmth of his natural affections, with a self- 
forgetfulness and a simplicity of action which 
readily threw off the restraints of conventional 
and artificial life. 

He was engaged one afternoon in giving 
confirmation to a class of children, with some 
adults, at a settlement in the Adirondacks called 
Bloomingdale near Saranac Lake. Just as he 
was about to begin the ceremony he saw, to 
his great surprise, sitting on one of the benches 
before him a sister of his whom he had not seen 
for many years. "Why," he said, "is that 
you?" Overjoyed at the sight, and quite for- 
getful of all other surroundings, he stepped 
forth, from the sanctuary into the aisle all vested 
as he was, and with his mitre on, and throwing 
his arms about her saluted her with a hearty 
kiss. It then broke upon his mind that he had 
done something unusual. "Don't be scandal- 
ized," he said to the congregation, "it's my sis- 
ter ! My own dear old sister ! She has come all 
the way from California! I haven't seen her for 
years." And the congregation were not at all 
scandalized. Simple-hearted as they were and 



180 Reminiscences, iS/2-i<9pi. 

all unartificial, they were more edified by this 
sudden display of natural affection than they 
would have been if they had seen the good bishop 
giving the " Pax" to his assistant priest at the 
altar in the midst of a pontifical High Mass, and 
with all the solemn dignity intended by the rubric. 

Bishop Wadhams was never a society man, and 
it was not at all in his nature to become very con- 
ventional in his ways and manner. He was, 
however, a thorough gentleman in all that such 
a term implies of true courtesy and consideration 
for others. I give one instance. 

Near the close of his life, but before his last 
illness, old age and increasing infirmity made it 
difficult for him to dress without assistance. This 
office was commonly performed by a laboring 
man in his service named John, whose duty it 
also was to attend to the fires. One morning 
when this man came into his room the bishop 
felt it necessary to take John to task for malfea- 
sance in office. 

" You neglect the fires, John," he said. " The 
house is too cold ; I feel it and the whole house- 
hold suffers from it." John took the reproof 
humbly and quietly, only taking advantage of 
a short pause to say, " Did you have a good sleep 
last night, bishop?" Being determined to make 
an impression on the mind of his attendant the 
bishop continued to enlarge upon the matter. 
When this was over John only replied, " Is there 
any other matter, sir, you'd like to mention?" 



Characteristic Anecdotes. 181 

"No," was the reply, " you may go now. — Yes, 
wait a moment!" Then, after a short pause, the 
bishop continued: "John, when you came into 
my room a little while ago you wished me good- 
morning; I forgot to return the salute. After- 
wards you asked me if I had had a good sleep ; I 
forgot to answer that also. I found fault with 
you instead, and you never said a word or looked 
sullen. John, I can't afford to let you be more 
of a gentleman than I am. Good-morning to you, 
John. Did I have a good sleep? No, I had a 
very bad night of it. No fault of yours, though. 
And now you may go, John, and God bless 
you." 

What the bishop was in his household such he 
was in his whole diocese and in all his inter- 
course with the world. He was as much of a 
gentleman with the least of his inferiors as he 
was with any of those who ranked above him. 

A bishopric in the hands of a man who devotes 
himself earnestly and conscientiously to his high 
office involves a life of constant labor, and that 
a labor attended by many and constant embarrass- 
ments. Bishop Wadhams was not a man to 
shrink from labor. He was a hardy man, both 
in body and mind, and found happiness in his 
work. The greatest trouble which his diocese 
gave him was not from the tax it necessarily 
made upon his physical powers or mental facul- 
ties. It was a pain, and the pain lay at his heart. 
The pain came when he saw manifested in the 



1 82 Reminiscences, id?/ r 2-iS > pi. 

flock committed to him anything like discordant 
feeling or bitterness of contention. 

Whatever mischiefs may have hitherto existed 
in our American Church, its past records will 
show very little of the spirit of disunion. The 
clergy have been loyal to their bishops, the con- 
gregations have been loyal to their pastors, and 
the people have dwelt together in a brotherhood 
of true Christian love. It is manifest, however, 
that latterly with a change in sources of immi- 
gration, which, instead of flowing in one or two 
large streams, is now fed by a great variety of 
springs from all parts of Europe, extending even 
into w r estern Asia, a new condition of things has 
been engendered. A jarring of nationalities 
shows itself, all claiming the privilege of .engraft- 
ing into this country, into its social life, and into 
the very worship and government of our church, 
their several peculiarities. These alien elements 
are not only calculated to disturb and displace 
what they find here, but they jostle with each 
other, and they constitute a great practical prob- 
lem to be solved by our church in our day. 

The diocese of Ogdensburg has had its own 
share in these difficulties, and the heart which 
most keenly felt the strain has been the great, 
loving heart of the late Bishop of Ogdensburg. 
Toward the close of his life his increasing in- 
firmities caused him to apply to the Holy See for 
a coadjutor. This excited a contention, and the 
nationality of the proposed coadjutor was the sub- 



Sickness, Suffering, and Cure. 183 

ject of the contention. The trouble assumed 
such proportions that the wearied bishop finally 
decided that the wisest course was to withdraw 
the application and endeavor to bear his burden 
alone. It is not my purpose to enlarge any fur- 
ther upon this matter. I have only introduced 
it as a matter too real and too important to be 
entirely suppressed, and because it will throw 
light upon the closing scene of the good bishop's 
life, now soon to be recorded. 

Some twelve years after his elevation to the 
episcopate Bishop Wadhams was attacked by a 
complication of physical disorders which were 
not only extremely painful, but interfered with 
the prosecution of his duties, and even threatened 
his life. Feeling that a serious crisis was at 
hand, he came quietly and unannounced to Al- 
bany, and, taking a room at St. Peter's Hospital, 
he placed himself under the care of Dr. Keegan, 
a visiting physician of that institution, in the 
hope that a period of quiet rest and skilful treat- 
ment might fit him again for active labor. 

The sufferings of Bishop Wadhams at this hos- 
pital before obtaining relief were, according to 
Dr. Keegan, as dreadful as human nature can 
experience. He found him at one time sitting 
doubled up on his bed in a perfect agony of pain, 
covered with perspiration, shaking from head to 
foot and sobbing like a child. "Don't think 
hard of me, doctor," he said, "to see me cry in 
this way. I can't help it. I am only a man. 



184 Reminiscences , 1872-1891, 

Nothing either more or less/' During all the 
time of his illness, however, he never uttered a 
word of impatience or complaint. Only the body 
was shaken. The soul was steadfast. " I recog- 
nized at once," said the doctor, "that I had under 
my hands no common man. He was a man of 
heroic mould." 

The relief obtained from the skilful treatment 
received in Albany at St. Peter's Hospital, al- 
though most serviceable and for the time effec- 
tual, did not amount to a permanent cure. The 
effectual and permanent cure came on the 8th of 
December, 1886, the feast of the Immaculate 
Conception. At half -past six o'clock on the 
morning of that day he celebrated Mass in his 
private chapel. This Mass was the concluding 
exercise of a novena which he had instituted to 
obtain a cure from heaven. The sisters of the 
Sacred Heart Academy ("Gray Nuns," so called) 
had at his request taken part in the novena, and 
were present at the Mass. The disease left him 
suddenly at the consecration of the Sacred Host, 
and never returned again. He became over- 
powered and burst into tears, which flowed abun- 
dantly during the remainder of his Mass, but at 
the end he could not control his feelings and gave 
full vent to them. He continued at prayer in 
the chapel until half -past nine. Two of the sis- 
ters remained with him there. Several times he 
said to Sister Stanislaus: " O my child, if I could 
only tell you what the Immaculate Queen has 



Last Ilhiess. 185 

done for me ! I , so unworthy ! " This he repeated 
over and over. 

The central figure of the sanctuary dome in his 
cathedral, representing the coronation of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary by the Eternal Father, was 
painted there by his orders in memory of the 
cure thus obtained through her intercession. 

We owe these details to Sister Stanislaus, to 
whom he made a full revelation of the whole oc- 
currence a few days before his death. As he 
said Mass frequently at the Sacred Heart Acad- 
emy this sister became well acquainted with his 
method of making thanksgiving after Mass, and 
with his habits of devotion. His close and fa- 
miliar conversations with Our Lord in the Blessed 
Eucharist, with the Blessed Virgin, and with St. 
Joseph were something remarkable. She tells 
us that " after his usual morning Mass he would 
sit down and actually talk to the Blessed Virgin, 
telling her what she should give him, commend- 
ing such and such an interest to her care." 

In February, 1891, old age and over-taxed en- 
ergies brought him down again and near to 
death's door. A circular letter of the vicar-gen- 
eral, sent through the diocese and to friends out- 
side, announced what was believed to be the ap- 
proach of death, and fervent prayers were sent 
up for him from many altars which he had helped 
to build, and where his face was familiar and be- 
loved. To the surprise of all, however, he rallied 
so as to afford strong hope of his restoration once 



1 86 Reminiscences, 1872-1891. 

more to active duty. His physical condition at 
this time, as well as something of his warm- 
heartedness and the Christian tranquillity of his 
soul in sickness, may be seen in the following 
letter, dated August 31st, 1891 : 

" Rev. dear Friend Walworth : I cannot tell 
you how grateful I feel for your most excellent 
and affectionate letter, through the hands of your 
devoted niece. 

"I was brought to death's door, and received 
all the sacraments of Holy Church by sickness 
that took me to my bed on February 12th last. 
Since the 1st of July I have been strong enough 
to fast and receive Holy Communion occasionally. 
I went down very slowly, and very lowly, and 
very far ; up to the present I have not been able 
to celebrate Mass, but am in hopes to be able to 
do so before many days, once in a while. 

" As you well say, my w r orking days are nearly 
ended as far as taking the road again. I am able 
to ride out every day, read a very little, write 
none. 

" Your allusions to past years and our Catholic 
lives touch me most sensibly, but it is a matter 
of which I cannot write at present. Who can be 
more happy than we? 

" With kindest and most affectionate regards 
and blessings for yourself and Miss Nellie, 
" I am, very sincerely in Christ, 
"E. P. Wadhams, Bishop of Ogdensburg" 



Last Illness. 187 

The above letter is in the bishop's own hand- 
writing. It begins with a certain show of firm- 
ness and good penmanship, but grows gradually 
more straggling, until at the close a failure of 
strength is very evident, and the signature is lit- 
tle better than a scratch. 

" See what a letter I have written to you with 
my own hand" wrote St. Paul to the Galatians. 
Other of his inspired epistles were written in 
bonds and from Rome. They contain the same 
careful reminder that he used his own hand to 
write. His room in the Roman prison still re- 
mains. It was a very dark one, unless he was 
allowed the light of a lamp. He must have 
taken his scroll to the little window and written 
there upon the sill, on which a flush of daylight 
fell and still falls. It cost him something, this 
work of love. How affectionately he reminds 
his brethren of the prison which held him, and 
of his anxiety that they should read his heart in 
his own handwriting. Tears fall from my eyes 
when I gaze on this last letter of my old friend, 
and feel that it must have cost him something 
to trace the straggling characters with his own 
hand. I am not in the habit of preserving pri- 
vate letters, but I could not bring myself to part 
with this one. 

Although my friend endeavored to write cheer^ 
fully, and may perhaps have entertained the 
prospect of resuming his active duties for a little 
while, yet this was not to be. There came, in- 



1 88 Reminiscences, 1872 1891. 

depd, from time to time short periods of return- 
ing activity, as flames are seen to flicker and 
gleam above the dying embers of a hearth-fire; 
but the end soon came. He died December 5th, 
1891. 

The close of his last illness is thus characterized 
by his niece, Harriet Wadhams, wife of Dr. Ste- 
vens of New York, a most estimable lady, a Con- 
gregationalism who was in constant attendance 
upon him during the last two weeks of his life. 
Her testimony is as follows : " It was my great 
privilege during this time," she says in a letter 
to the author, " to listen to the saintly utterances 
which continually fell from his lips. His end 
was most peaceful, as he had so long prayed 
that it might be." 

We will not dwell upon the occurrences of that 
final day, nor of other days leading directly up 
to it, except to recall one scene remarkably char- 
acteristic, in which he signalized his departure 
from the world in a manner that was deliberate, 
solemn, and impressive. 

The following account is gathered from the 
columns of the Ogdensburg Courier of December 
5th, 1891 : 

When the symptoms of a speedy end became 
apparent, the bishop decided to make a final 
preparation for death. He was anointed and re- 
ceived the Holy Viaticum. His thanksgiving be- 
ing ended, the bishop declared his desire to make 
his solemn ante-mortem declaration of faith. 



Scene at the Death- Bed, 189 

There were present in the sick-chamber the Very 
Rev. Thomas E. Walsh, Vicar- General, and 
Fathers Larose, Burns, Conroy, and Murphy, 
priests of the diocese ; his niece, Mrs. Dr. Ste- 
vens, and two members of the community of 
Gray Nuns, Sisters Stanislaus and Matthew. 

The profession of faith according to the for- 
mula of Pius IV. was read to him in Latin. Dur- 
ing the reading the bishop accentuated his accep- 
tance of the church's teachings by frequently 
repeating, with evident satisfaction and empha- 
sis, the words as read by Father Walsh. Now 
a smile of approval lit up the pallid face, now an 
earnest "Credo" fell from the prelate's lips. 
When the last words were reached a bright smile 
overspread the bishop's face, and he said joyously, 
"Deo gratias!" 

This done, the dying man bethought himself 
of his responsibilities as a bishop. He announced 
that he had a last utterance to make. "You all 
know of my life," he said; "educated in the 
Protestant Episcopal belief, I left it for the One, 
Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church. 

" It won't do to say that one church is as good 
as another — there is only one true church. There 
must be unity ; there must be a head, and that is 
the pope. I want to insist upon unity. There 
may be some difference of ideas amongst us — we 
are of many different births — but for God's sake 
let there be unity amongst us. To the devoted 
clergy of the diocese — oh! what shall I say to 



190 Reininiscences, 187 2-1 891. 

them? — they have done so much for me, holding 
up my hands and authority — and oh!" (turning 
to Father Walsh) " let them hold up your hands 
-^-respect and hold up your authority ! Struggle 
for the old faith. Be faithful in giving the Sac- 
raments. The priests are for the people, not the 
people for the priests v" The anxious heart of the 
dying convert then reverted to that crowd of 
souls outside of the faith with which he had once 
been united. " If one thing has, during the past 
year, contributed more than another to break my 
health and my heart, it has been the thought that 
one thousand seven hundred more souls annu- 
ally come into the world in this diocese than re- 
ceive the sacrament of baptism. There are seven 
sacraments, not two only — and the saddest of it 
all is that even these two, once accepted, are be- 
ing rejected by those who formerly accepted 
them." After a few more affectionate words and 
expressions of thanks to the clergy and religious 
of the diocese, and also to all the laity, he re- 
peated once more those golden words which had 
been the great rule of his own life in the minis- 
try: "The priests are for the people, not 

THE PEOPLE FOR THE PRIESTS." 

"I want all my priests and people to know," 
he concluded, " how the first bishop of Ogdens- 
burg died." Then after a still more emphatic 
and closely defined declaration of his adherence 
to the entire faith of the church, and begging 
prayers to be said for him by all his people, he 




< 



< 
u 



u 



o 

w 
fa 

o 

O 



Scene at the Death- Bed. 191 

requested the priests present to approach, and 
giving his blessing, he embraced each one in 
turn. All were moved to tears, and retired with 
sad hearts from the painful and impressive scene. 

These imperfect reminiscences of the life of 
Bishop Wadhams are now concluded. We trust 
that his wish so earnestly expressed may be ful- 
filled, and that the Catholic people of the Adiron- 
dacks will remember how the first Bishop of 
Ogdensburg died. God grant, also, that all the 
Catholic clergy of this whole nation will treasure 
up the golden rule which he has bequeathed to 
us: " The priests are for the people, not the peo- 
ple for the priests." 



XLbe TOa&bams 3famil£ in England anfc America* 

[For the following details the author is indebted to the 
kindness and intelligent care of Mrs. Dr. Stevens, of 
New York City, daughter of William L. Wadhams.] 

|SHE word Wadham signifies " A home by 
|j^ the ford." Prince, in his history entitled 

Worthies of Devon, 1 70 1 , says : 
" This ancient and renowned family of Wad- 
ham had its original seat in the county of Devon 
and derived its name from the place of its habi- 
tation, Wadham, which is in the parish of Know- 
stone, near the incorporate town of South Mol- 
ton. William de Wadham was a freeholder of 
this land in the days of King Edward I., 1272 to 
1 307, and both East and West Wadham descended 
in this name to Nicholas Wadham, founder of 
Wadham College, Oxford, 1609, who left them 
to his heirs general. 

"This honorable family possessed the seat 
called Edge through about eight descents in a 
direct line, five of whom were knights, who 
matched with divers daughters and heirs and be- 
came allied to many great and noble houses, 
13 193 



194 Appendix. 

as Plantagenet, Worthesby, Bridges, Popham, 
Strangways, Tregarthian, etc., etc., as may ap- 
pear from this pedigree thereof/' (See Prince *s 
Worthies, p. 588, folio edition, 1701.) 

About the year 1499, Merrifield, an estate in 
Somersetshire, came into possession of Sir John 
Wadham by marriage, and at that time the prin- 
cipal seat of the family was removed to the county 
of Somerset. The ancient moated seat of Merri- 
field is in the parish of Ilton, about five miles 
from Ilminster to the north. St. Mary's, the 
parish church, was the burial-place of the family 
for many years, and the north aisle of the church 
is called the Wadham aisle because of the monu- 
ments, both mural and otherwise, there erected 
to the family. Nicholas Wadham and Dorothy, 
his wife, co-founders of Wadham College, are 
buried in St. Mary's Church, Ilminster. (The 
seal of Wadham College bears, marshalled to- 
gether, the arms of Nicholas Wadham and the 
coat of the Petre family, his wife Dorothy hav- 
ing been sister of John, Lord Petre. Edgar P. 
Wadhams, on becoming bishop, adopted from the 
college seal, for his own official use, the three 
roses divided by a chevron which constitutes the 
armorial bearing of the Wadham family, with ad- 
ditions which have already been mentioned in 
the "Reminiscences.") 

The first of the name to come to America was 
one John Wadham, who came from Somerset- 
shire, England, and settled in Wethersfield, 



Appendix. 195 

Conn., in the year 1650. The line of succession 
from John, the first emigrant, to Bishop Wad- 
hams is as follows : 

1 st. John (son of the emigrant), born at 
Wethersfield, July 8, 1655. 

2d. Noah, of Wethersfield, born 1695. 

3d. Jonathan, of " " 1730. 

4th. Abraham, of Goshen, " 1757. 

5th. Luman, " " " 1782. 

6th. Edgar P., of Wadhams Mills, born 18 17. 

It is not known who of the American family 
added the letter "s" to the English name of 
Wadham. In the early records of Connecticut 
it is spelled without the "s." 

Nicholas, the founder of Wadham College, left 
no children. His father was John Wadham, 
Esq., of Edge, Devonshire. He had estates in 
both Devon and Somerset, but lived mostly in 
Somerset. 

It is not definitely known how near the rela- 
tion was between Nicholas, the founder of the 
college, and the John who was the first of the 
Wadham family to come to America. There is 
great probability that they were nearly related, 
as the same Christian names are handed down in 
this country as were used by the family of Nich- 
olas in England. They were both residents of 
the same county. 

General Luman Wadhams, father of Bishop 
Wadhams, was born in Goshen, Conn. He was 
the sixth in direct descent from John of England. 



196 Appendix. 

About the year 1800 he went to Charlotte, Vt., 
and there married the widow Lucy Prindle, born 
Bostwick. The first of her family to come to 
this country was Ebenezer Bostwick, who came 
from Cheshire, England, in the year 1668. 
About the year 1 809 Luman Wadhams left Ver~ 
mont and became one of the pioneer settlers of 
Essex County, New York, locating first in the 
town of Lewis, but subsequently erecting mills 
on the Bouquet River in the town of Westport, 
and laying the foundation for what has ever since 
been the thriving little business centre of Wad- 
hams Mills. General Wadhams took a prominent 
and honorable part in the early development and 
the defence of Essex County. Holding the rank 
of general of the militia, he commanded the 
forces which repulsed the British when they as- 
cended the Bouquet River in the summer of 18 13, 
for the purpose of seizing or destroying supplies 
at Willsborough Falls. The fire of the militia 
killed or wounded nearly all that were in the 
rear galley on their retreat, and it floated into 
the lake a disabled wreck. He participated in 
the battle of Plattsburgh, where for three months 
he was on duty. 

The children of General Luman Wadhams and 
Lucy, his wife, are as follows: Lucy Alvira, who 
married Dr. D. S. Wright, of Whitehall, N. Y. ; 
Jane Ann, who married Mr. Benjamin Wells, of 
Upper Jay, N. Y. ; William Luman, who mar- 
ried Emeline L. Cole, of Westport, and resided 



Appendix. 197 

at Wadbams Mills; Abraham E., who married 
Sophia Southard, of Essex, N. Y., and resided 
at Wadhams Mills ; and Edgar Prindle, the first 
Bishop of Ogdensburg. 



THE END. 



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